Help Identifying Shrub Please

[atalanta]

A friend was passing a few twigs round in the pub, so I can't photograph it. It grows about person-height, stems are quite slender, leaves are simple, light-green in colour, narrow and about the length of a finger. It has insignificant, tiny flowers. Sounds rather uninteresting, doesn't it ? But I think this friend was hoping that it might do better if moved to a better site, or better soil, but there's not much to be done if he can't give it a name.
I have tried various websites to try to identify this, but they all want more information than I have. Any ideas amongst all you gardeners ?

[vulcan42]

What colour are the flowers?

[atalanta]

The flowers are scarce, no bigger than matchheads, in ones or twos at the base of some of the leaves, and seem to be white or cream coloured

[Tremendous]

I will suggest this:-
Aralia cordata 'Sun King'

http://saundersbrothers.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=plants.plantDetail&plant_id=1192&typeID=&whichname=genus

[atalanta]

Alas, the leaves are longer, smoother, thinner and paler than aralia cordata, though the other characteristics seem to be close.