The show must always go on…it is not quite law, but to the artist, be it actor, painter or musician, it is a loaded phrase that at some point seems to present itself fully and without warning. It can strike disaster, it can bring the house down with well-deserved applause from a grateful and highly delighted audience.

With one of the stars, the incomparable Helen Carter, having suffered an injury to a rib and with around 90 minutes to curtain, the highly successful and tremendously funny Christmas show, Scouse of the Antarctic, could have suffered a set-back which would have been upsetting for the huge crowd that had made their way to the Royal Court Theatre on a cold January night on one of the final evenings of the top rated Liverpool show.