Bittersweet comedies and frivolous shorts – the Ayckbourn Ensemble comes to the Watford Palace Theatre next week, consisting of an old favourite – of ours and of Sir Alan Ayckbourn’s himself – and a couple of new offerings.

“Every year I reprise one play and write a new one – but last year I wrote an extra one as well,“ says the UK’s most performed living playwright, on the phone from his home in Scarborough.

“For the reprisal, there are quite a few to choose from – 78! You’ve got all the obvious ones – The Norman Conquests, Relatively Speaking, How the Other Half Loves – but Time of My Life is one of my favourites, even though it’s not regularly performed, so I picked that one.“

This play is about a family out celebrating the mother’s birthday. Laura is at her favourite restaurant with her husband Gerry, their two sons and their partners. The dinner turns out to be a significant moment in all their lives, with repercussions being felt for years to come.

The other two plays on the bill are Arrivals and Departures, and Farcicals, which is actually a double-bill of two shorter plays, Chloë With Love and The Kidderminster Affair.

Arrivals and Departures is set in a London rail terminus, where an elaborate trap is deployed to capture a dangerous and elusive terrorist. The Strategic Simulated Distractional Operations Unit is ready to pounce. Their witness, garrulous traffic warden Barry Hawkins, and troubled young female soldier Ez Swain, his minder, are on-hand. What could possibly go wrong?

“Some people might tell me I’m wrong,“ laughs Alan, who will celebrate his 75th birthday this year, “but I think Arrivals and Departures is unlike anything I’ve written before. It’s for 11 people, so it’s certainly different in that respect, the most I’ve done before is about seven.“

Farcicals is a double-bill of neighbourly short plays: Chloë With Love portrays Teddy’s marriage to Lottie going through a difficult period – does he still love her? Does she still love him? Cue next door neighbours Penny and Reggie coming to the rescue.

The Kidderminster Affair takes the story a bit further – is Teddy’s secret liaison with Penny about to leak out? Will Lottie discover the awful truth about Kidderminster? Will Reggie ever get hold of the right end of the stick? Will he burn the barbecue? Or indeed resolve the mystery of the slow puncture?