The Oxford Playhouse this week plays host to the Salisbury Playhouse, on tour with a revival of N.C.Hunter's 1958 play A Touch of the Sun. A thoroughly entertaining piece, this is nonetheless an uncomfortable reminder of the oppressive class consciousness and real hardship that afflicted post-war Britain at a time when the Prime Minister was declaring "You've never had it so good".

At the heart of the action is Philip Lester, a dedicated teacher in a small private school for boys described as "slow in developing", who reveals a mix of socialist and conservative values in what seems now like an almost tyrannical treatment of his family. Lester, played by Jamie Newall an actor who bears a passing, disconcerting, resemblance to the late Duke of Windsor is forced to face up to the reality of his position when his brother Denis (Ian Targett) appears, newly rich and with a glamorous Canadian wife in tow, and takes the family off to a holiday in Cannes where they all contract the touch of the sun of the title.

There is always the risk that Hunter's play will digress into didactic criticism of the state of the world, as Lester slams the pursuit of money and the trappings of wealth that threaten his own "standards". But there is a lightheartedness to the script as well, and a wonderful 'character' in the shape of Lester's father Robert (Terry Taplin), who has an eye for a pretty woman and delights in puncturing his son's occasional pomposity. Robert has fallen on hard times and has been forced to move into his son's already overcrowded home.

Philip Lester's wife Mary (Paula Stockbridge), who seems at first to be a typical 1950s housewife, has also known better days, and the family's trip to Cannes revives her flagging spirits to the extent that the temptation to escape the prep school routine becomes almost overwhelming.

The couple's son John (Giles Cooper) does succeed in challenging the family assumption that he will follow his father into schoolteaching, but daughter Caroline (Ellie Piercy), despite her obvious enjoyment of a taste of the good life, rallies to her father's cause. This was the role that marked Vanessa Redgrave's stage debut in the original production, which also saw her father Michael in the part of Philip Lester.

The action moves between Surrey and the French Riviera with total ease, thanks to an ingenious set by Tim Meacock, who causes an ugly heating pipe to be transformed into a palm tree, while director Joanna Read has devised an ingenious way of covering the set changes. A Touch of the Sun offers an intriguing insight into how we once were and is good entertainment into the bargain.