Bob The Builder can fix it!

Children’s favourite Bob came to the rescue when I wondered what to do with my two young children at the weekend.

An outing to Dunstable’s Grove Theatre saw us meet up with Bob, Scoop, Dizzy, Wendy, Scrambler and Spud for a 90-minute show full of fun, music and dance.

The Fixham Theatre is set for a grand re-opening. Local talent Dickie Olivier needs Bob’s help to fix up the stage for his brand new musical. But when Spud decides he wants to be the star of the show, the job doesn’t go exactly to plan.

The characters from the show appear one by one to the delight of the young audience. It’s easy enough for the likes of Bob, Wendy and Spud to take to the stage as they’re simply a matter of someone hauling on a costume.

However when it comes to Bob’s machine team, it’s a little more complicated. Scoop and Lofty are housed within two doorways and move back and fourth, with some levers going up and down too, plus a bit of eye and mouth movement throw in to add to the realism.

Some members of the 1pm audience may have spotted Lofty’s mouth not moving in the initial part of the show - and instead two mysterious pipes across his face wobbling about. It would appear this machine hadn’t been built properly for the performance, but midway through Lofty’s lips were hooked over the pipes and hence the mouth finally functioned properly!

You’ve really got to question Bob’s people management skills in this story. If there’s a crucial job to do there’s only one man (or scarecrow, to be precise) for the task.

Step forward incompetent Spud who fails to glue the scenery correctly, doesn’t press down on the bricks long enough to help the cement set firmly, and forgets to put the plug in on the snow making machine.

It’s so obviously all going to end in tears... so much so that my five-year-old daughter turned away from the action with her head in her hands mumbling “ I can’t watch”.

Thankfully and predictably it all turns out okay in the end.

After fixing things, Bob tells everyone that he likes to celebrate by dancing.

Hence throughout the show we’re treated to some well-known (to Bob fans at least) classic songs to sign and dance along to – with all the actions too.

My daughter and her three-year-old brother were up off the seats for Bob’s theme tune, Big Fish Little Fish, Hey Wendy (to the tune of Hey Baby), plus new songs specially for the show.

All in all there was plenty to make a song and a dance about. Bob certainly did fix it for the Sims family.