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Like a closed book?

Lipman is a self-confessed black-cab nut who still remembers occasions when she came home to find Rosenthal playing host to a random assortment of cab drivers in his quest for absolute authenticity and perfection. Did he achieve it? Just stop any cabbie and ask. They will instantly recall the way in which Rosenthal captured the very essence of The Knowledge with an examiner nicknamed “The Vampire” for his exacting standards and heavy irony.

The idea to bring the play to the stage came from Vaughan Williams, chairman of the Charing Cross Theatre, a prolific black-cab user who lives just a few metres from Gibson Square, destination of the very first run on the very first page of The Knowledge’s essential Blue Book. Having got Lipman’s approval, two years later — with the script adapted by Simon Block— she accepted an invitation from Williams and his co-producer Steven M Levy to direct the show.

Lipman’s face, so mobile and humorous, belies her 71 years. She’s been busy working all over London — at the Hampstead Theatre, pantomime in Richmond and a stint at the Menier Chocolate Factory in Southwark.

Completely at home in the cramped confines of a black-cabbie café, dressed in smart cream chinos and navy sweater, she asks what’s good to eat.

“Salt beef, of course,” yell a dozen different voices. A stream of passing cabbies come up to say hello as word gets around just who is paying the café a visit. Lipman proves quite happy to join in with rants about congestion, cycle lanes and Ubers, which she abhors and will not consider using.