NICHOLAS UTECHIN has great fun watching Danny The Champion of the World

How delightful! How exuberant! How close is this stage version to Roald Dahl's original book? I don't really care. The show's the thing on this occasion and six-year-old Sam, sitting in front of me, gave it eight marks out of ten - "the caravan was great," he added.

This is a fantastically child-friendly adaptation of Danny by David Wood, given vital panache by the touring Birmingham Stage Company and its line-up of enthusiastic actors.

Full marks to the Oxford Playhouse for providing lots of matinees - and even morning performances during the week - and an evening start time of 7pm to attract as many children along as possible. Full marks also to the company's excellent souvenir programme, with teasers that should provide much fun after the curtain's gone down. It is also a rare treat for audiences to be beguiled by live music throughout.

The story itself could not be more simple: Danny and his Dad live in their caravan (which rotates to show the interior and exterior as the action demands) and Danny, after initially expressing shock that his father is a pheasant-poacher, comes up with a big idea' - "poaching is art - that's how we country folk see it!".

Richard Nichols as Dad works very hard and very successfully. Dahl and Wood have given peaches of roles to the main baddy - Gareth Clarke as Mr Hazell, who wants to throw them off his property (boo!) - and the double parts of Dr Spencer and the Headmistress (Ruth Calkin in splendid North Oxford vein). Gareth Watson as Danny (his first professional lead) does very well playing someone approximately half his age.

This adaptation uses the audience well. I could not believe it when I saw so many children taking orders from the stage to raise their hands, or cross their legs, or cheer and boo. A pantomime pro would have been more than happy to get such responses. There aren't meant to be any moments calling for full-bodied laughter; there were merely constant gurgles of delight. Roald Dahl does want to get over a couple of messages: shooting birds for sport is bad, and so is snobbery - "all those posh dukes and bigwigs" - but I wouldn't worry too much about that: just take the children along for some great fun.