MY nine-year-old daughter is a huge fan of the Tom Gates books, so I was intrigued to see how her favourite stories would play out live on stage.

The tales by Liz Pichon relay the every-day struggles of our hapless hero Tom as he negotiates life in year five, doing his best to stay out of trouble both at school and at home.

A series of unfortunate events sees him with three sad faces on the class achievement chart, and at risk of missing out on the eagerly-anticipated school trip to the biscuit factory.

The story was extremely cleverly portrayed in the style of the busy style of the books, thanks to an ingenious moving backdrop, complete with sound and other special effects.

Even Pichon’s illustrations are brilliantly animated for the stage.

This production, brought to the stage by the award-winning producers of Horrible Histories and Gangsta Granny, features only a small cast, but they played multiple characters effortlessly, thanks to a series of seamless, incredibly quick costume changes.

The actors brilliantly captured the unbridled energy, enthusiasm and innocence of nine and ten-year-olds, which is probably why the audience, largely made up of youngsters of a similar age, sat enraptured for two hours.

Funny, imaginative and rounding-off with a mini concert featuring simple, catchy tunes, this show is an absolute winner.

Fantastically feel-good fun for the whole family.