LETTERS... remember them?

Charlie Mortimer does. For most of his life he kept up a stream of correspondence with his slightly eccentric and very amusing father Roger.

And it was after Roger died, and Charlie had a look and a laugh and a cry at the letters, that he decided to have them published.

The result was a successful book called Dear Lupin (Lupin was Roger’s nickname for his son), and now that has been adapted into a stage play.

The play, adapted by Michael Simkins, is as warm and charming, as poignant and funny as the book - perhaps even more so as real life father and son actors James and Jack Fox bring the characters to life, making them instantly likeable.

The letters provide the framework for the play, but this isn’t a straight reading of the correspondence.

Instead, Simkins has cleverly but simply made the interaction extended conversations, with two men acting out incidents that are described in the letters.

The actors are superb. Jack imbued Charlie with impish charm for much of the time, but conveyed desperate times - drug and alcohol addiction, contracting HIV - with sadness.

James brings a lifetime of acting experience to the production, which shows from the start as he eases into the dotty old guy with glee.

For some of the time, Fox is playing Roger playing various characters from two men’s lives, and it works like a charm.

Dear Lupin is a lovely night out. There will be tears, but most of all there will be laughter.

Go and see it and then text, email, Twitter or Facebook your friends.

Or better still, write them a letter.