Peppa Pig's Treasure Hunt

Praise be to Peppa Pig, the porcine heroine who blends cute bumptiousness with the unending ability to pitch onto her back and roar with laughter at the absurdity of the world. A perfect example for all of us.

And if you don't believe the testimony of hundreds of thousands of adoring toddlers, don't forget that New Labour tried to draft her in as a role model for a launch of their manifesto for families - an event from which she suddenly withdrew, clearly wanting to keep her trotters clean of political controversy.

There's no danger of the female piglet not showing her quizzical little face here however, in this enjoyably inventive stage adaptation. With most Peppa Pig episodes only lasting a matter of minutes, a key challenge is creating a show which will sustain its appeal for slightly longer than an hour, faced with the dual challenge of little attention spans and (in the case of some toddlers) little bladders.

Given that a child's first playful impulse seems to be to play hide and seek, the theme of a treasure hunt is an inspired one. An echo song where the children are asked to repeat the noises made by different characters (Danny Dog, Pedro Pony, and Zoe Zebra all play key roles) is a great device, and for the small boys in the audience, the inclusion of at least four modes of transport in the journey to find the buried treasure demonstrates that the show's creators really understand what's important for their audience.

From the adult (and admittedly least important) perspective, the understandable need to make this action driven means that some of the more enjoyable characterisation is lost. If you watch Peppa Pig for long enough, you realise that Daddy and Mummy Pig are the Homer and Marge Simpson of children's entertainment, and the fact that they make a limited appearance in the show detracts a little from the shreds of comedy.

A more serious complaint, however, is the exorbitant prices of the flashing light sticks (a pre-requisite for all children's shows, it seems), which are sold to the tots at £7 a go. True they spin around very excitingly, yet my son broke his within five minutes. We were given a new one, but that only made it to the end of the day. That would be just about acceptable for something under a fiver, but definitely not over.

This cavil aside, taking your child to this show is a lovely way of getting them to encounter their porcine heroes. The look on my son's face when George's tears spurted out into the audience and hit him was alarmingly ecstatic. Most impressively, at the end he didn't want leave the theatre. A testament to a successful morning out indeed.