AS a grown up with a knowing grin, one has to admire anyone using the Duchess of York's thinly veiled marketing bandwagon (Budgie The Little Goldmine, er, Helicopter) as a bandwagon themselves. For while Funtime Productions stayed faithful to Her Majesty's blueprint in this stage version of the books, cartoons and toys it was amusing to note that they managed to get through 90 minutes of solid, old fashioned children's entertainment with the barest minimum of cameos from the "cumbersome" little `copter himself.

So it was that the four real life actors - playing the roles of Budgie's pal Lucy, mechanics Ken Wrench and Mike Sprocket (straight man and buffoon, respectively) and the evil Toyshop Ted, a Gordon Brittas type character who goes around stealing people's toys - romped merrily through slapstick routines, song and dance stuff, conjuring setpieces and audience participation of the "look behind you" variety.

As with the best shows of this type there were plenty of witty ad libs for the grown ups and the chemistry onstage was excellent, all giving 100 per cent in what must be a testing branch of theatre where clever scripts often fail to connect with five year olds and throwaway lines like "Mike, you look like a big banana" have them inexplicably rolling in the aisles. Nick George, as mechanic Mike, went the extra mile in his role, while Mary McKenna and David Irwin deserve particular praise for designing a quite superb dream sequence involving ultra violet puppet work and, yes, Budgie momentarily flying.