An embattled Prime Minister has defied UN Resolutions to lead a scarcely justified assault on the Middle East. His party is restive. The Chancellor is limbering up ominously.

"Old Tony's taking the country to war whether we like it or not," says one of the Greek chorus of journalists helpfully, in case we were lagging behind.

But this Tony is Anthony Eden; it's 1956 and he is facing the Suez Crisis.

Yet before we can play Spot the Parallel, a game that playwright James Graham spoils through some overemphatic underlining, we first have to Join the Dots. Eden and Churchill, the man who cast the longest shadow over the former's ill-starred premiership, must be manoeuvred through history from 1945.

There follows an uninspiring thump through a succession of scenes, from the Führerbunker to the Potsdam Conference, along with some helpful interjections from our journalist chums. By the time we actually get to 1956, world history weighs heavily on us.

An absolutely terrific performance from Jamie Newall as Eden almost makes this all worthwhile. Newall exquisitely portrays a deputy who has been waiting for the top job too long, giving Eden an understandable, yet politically disastrous, touch of the control freak.

This decent, dashing, stiff-upperlipped English gentleman is seen to best effect in the touching domestic interludes with his young wife, Clarissa (spirited Daisy Beaumont).

Almost, but not quite. Graham has obviously done his research, but fails to wear it lightly or to get much dramatic capital out of Suez's mounting tension.

Director Gemma Fairlie keeps her actors whizzing on and off Alex Marker's neat set, but should have insisted on a few more line-learning drills. Not an empire built to last.