The scenario is set up conventionally enough. An ex-soldier – Frederick Salisbury (played with great conviction and sensitivity by Keith Minshull) – has come to the home of the Staffordshire Regiment to donate to them his Victoria Cross, won 50 years before. He is easy with this and easy with himself. He is treated with respect by the Regimental Representatives – portrayed with suitable weight and efficiency by Mark Allen Jones and Michaela Warrillow – the play taking place in the Sergeant’s Mess at Whittington Barracks in 1994 as Frederick waits for the regiment to assemble for a march-past at which he will give the salute.

All is going to plan, until the arrival of a German journalist, Wolfgang Meissler, played by Gerry Hinks himself. It emerges that he has some link with Frederick’s heroic deed in 1944, but the narrative proceeds with the cleverness of a carefully considered game of chess. Hinks remains one move ahead of us as we try to work out the connection between these two men, and the real reason for Meissler to be here on Frederick’s great day. The dialogue amuses, then moves, then surprises us – as the first half skilfully ends with a key revelation.

The second half concentrates on the consequences of up-turning one man’s half-a-century of understanding of – for him – a historic moment. And what motives lie behind Meissler’s need to persuade Frederick that his account of the shooting of three Germans and rescue of an injured sergeant is the true one? It’s a tribute to Hinks’s skilful writing that at no time do the verbal twists and turns of dialogue become melodramatic. Both men are eager to do the right thing. Frederick’s new doubts are sensitively addressed in caring dialogue. Meissler is here to inform and help. He – for himself – needs Frederick to understand the truth, and Frederick needs to come to terms with the very concept of heroism and the real reason the medal was awarded.

Will the presentation ceremony go ahead? Would cancellation be justified or not? Confessions of Honour is not a play about revenge or recrimination. At the end of the play there is a sense of resolution, but with what outcome? The overwhelming sense here is one of compassion. The men part with new insight and understanding – both enriched by this meeting. And we are enriched by engaging with the sensitive issues pervading this well-scripted and compelling drama.