Thomas will leave your family chuffed

Thomas and his friends paid a 90-minute visit to Milton Keynes Theatre for a children’s musical which was always going to be sure-fire hit with the youngsters.

Anticipation was reaching fever pitch as a “peep, peep” signalled the show was about to start. The first five minutes featured the human cast members repeated teasing the audience by asking “Do you want to see Thomas?”.

There was, of course, only one answer to that question and when he finally chugged into view there was a collective gasp from the theatre.

I don’t think people knew what to expect from Thomas. But this was no cardboard cutout.

The magnificently large-scale engine’s mouth, eyes, even his eyebrows, moved – and steam pumped out of his funnel too.

The wow factor magnified as in no time he was joined by Percy and Gordon.

I’ve been to a few children’s shows over the years but I’ve never heard and felt such a buzz of excitement, in fact it made it hard to concentrate on the performances amongst the chit-chat in the aisles.

Six or seven impressive engine reveals later I asked my two-year-old son, who’d warmed up for the show by watching a Thomas DVD earlier in the day, what he thought of it so far.

His wide eyes spoke volumes, but all he uttered was “where’s Diesel 10 and Toby?” You can’t please them all!

As for my five-year-old daughter, she’d been distraught when she wasn’t taken to see Roary The Racing Car at The Grove Theatre in Dunstable earlier this year - so we didn’t make a similar mistake of thinking this was a show for the boys.

She was singing along from the first song and totally spellbound by the story which involved a circus visiting the Island Of Sodor.

Now, while the brilliant trains are the stars of the show, engines go nowhere without drivers. And Thomas is manoeuvred around the stage by Luton’s Aaron Spendelow – who comes complete with one of those cheesiest of cheesy grins all adult performers need to get on with a young crowd.

My family and I met him briefly after Saturday’s performance and as we chatted and I asked him about the show and his career, the toughest line of questioning came from two-year-old Master Sims.

“How does Thomas move, there are no tracks on the stage?”

If you’re disappointed you missed Thomas’ visit to MK then never fear, I can thoroughly recommend you make tracks to Dunstable’s Grove Theatre on April 19 and 20.

Box office 01582 602080.