Anything combining David Walliams, a granny, cabbages, families, Strictly and jewel heists has got to be a winning combination.

Thus the exuberant West End stage production of Walliams’ popular young person’s novel Gangsta Granny, at Lighthouse until Sunday, is undemanding and lightweight fun – but with a message.

It’s not my usual theatrical environment, but my six-year-old grandson was rapt throughout, volunteered his positive opinion on camera to Lighthouse staff at the interval and re-enacted scenes to his family the following day. He’s the target audience and loved it.

But Birmingham Stage Company’s fast-paced show has glamour, glitz, hilarity and pathos and is perfectly placed for both youngsters and adults.

Directed by Neal Foster, best know for his Horrible Histories adaptations, it tells the story of Ben who is shipped off to stay at his granny’s house every Friday night so his Strictly-obsessed parents can go dancing.

This he finds intolerable – the place stinks of cabbage, all he ever gets fed is cabbage soup, cabbage pie and cabbage cake – and he longs not to be there.

Then discovers a secret which changes his opinion of his elderly relative – and sets in motion an unstoppable chain of events – and without wishing to spoil the plot, it does involve granny turning into a mobility scooter riding gangster and an audacious plot to steal the crown jewels.

The two main protagonists work well together – Isabel Ford, as seen in Coronation Street, Hollyoaks and Emmerdale, plays the granny with great comic timing and Justin Davies, although in his mid-20s is enthusiastic enough to be mistaken for an 11-year-old.

Ford, it appears, has based her voice on Michelle Dotrice’s character Betty, Frank Spencer’s long-suffering wife in Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em back in the seventies. Meanwhile, Davies exudes Welsh boyishness.

A tight cast of just nine play multi-roles and fast costume changes are the order of the day. Special mention to Jason Furnival and Jess Nesling, who play Ben’s dance-loving parents and the nosy neighbourhood watcher/The Queen.

Suffice to say Ben, who wants to be a plumber, shows little interest in dancing himself and when he is entered in a competition it probably won’t end well.

The resulting Strictly parody is one of the show’s highlights, with plenty of audience participation as Irfan Damani, playing flamboyant, if a little chubby, has-been dancer Flavio, stealing the show at every opportunity.

And there is time towards the end for a touching lesson about the strength of families, loss and of doing the right thing.

A special word for the sound effects team whose farting, burping and gurgling noises kept this show bubbling away to the delight of the youngsters present – and the choreographed sets changes were an art form in themselves.

 The adventure continues until Sunday with child-friendly start times.