Room on the Broom is a bedtime favourite in my house.

Not so much for the fun plot which sees a witch and her cat fly off on a broomstick - accompanied by a dog, a bird and a frog. It’s more because of its sturdy card cover which I can grasp while restraining my overtired children in my arms. And mostly because Julia Donaldson’s writing works the kind of a driving, rhythmic tetrameter which turns pages. Even the most work-weary parent will applaud her solid, no-nonsense rhymes.

Bring in illustrator Axel Schleffer’s cheerful illustrations and, like their better know collaboration The Gruffalo, it’s a steadfast hit with children too.

At a guess it will take me about five minutes to read Room on the Broom. This afternoon, London based company Tall Stories stretched it out for almost an hour at The Oxford Playhouse.

Founded in 1997, the company have tackled classics such as Snow White and Rumpelstilskin along with three other books by Donaldson and Scheffler. Room on the Broom debuted in 2008.

Tall Stories’ dramatisation begins with a group of four people who’ve gone camping. They’re trying to sleep, and occasionally loud snoring breaks out on the stage. This works a treat because children find snoring uproariously funny. I never noticed this before, because I am always asleep when it happens.

One of four campers transforms into the witch, and another into the cat. A third brings on the dog, performing some outstanding puppetry on a funny dog, who wants to travel into outer space. Soon he’s followed by the fourth actor carrying the bird, and the frog who in real life, sings like James Brown. The frog says he’d like to have 672 children. A scattering of liberal parents snigger.

None of this is in the actual book, but it doesn’t matter at bit: “Mum this is really funny” a young girl yells from the stalls. My seven year old daughter is equally impressed and, thankfully, a lot quieter.

“It was great” she murmurs later. I have to poke her with a stick to get the following out: “I like it that they included some of the words from the book.” My five year old boy didn’t like the songs, but he said “the dragon was funny.”

If you don’t know the book, the dragon usually appears about three minutes in. In Tall Stories’ production is takes him 47 minutes to arrive. When he does, the dragon threatens to eat “kids on sticks”. Which was just ominous enough to jolt me out of my nap. Tall Stories’ Room on the Broom is very, very good fun for children who love this book. There are even a few off-hand quotes from Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody to amuse Granny.