VIDEO: Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is heading our way this Easter

By day, Jack is the venue’s artistic director, and it's in that capacity that he will mastermind a huge community production in which the fabulous car will, of course, be the star. Jack is even promising that it will actually fly. And if you remember the flying carriage from panto, you will know pretty much what we've got in store.

“Originally we were going to do The Sound Of Music, but Chitty doesn't become available very often and it did – and it's just something that you don't get the chance to do very often. I spoke to the producers and the team here and we decided that we would go for it. You have to submit an application and say how many seats and what the prices will be and all that and we were so lucky that they came back to us and said that we could do it. I think they said yes because we have got a really good reputation for putting on our own productions. We did a very successful Titanic and we did a great Bugsy Malone. We are certainly on the map as a number one touring venue but we are also on the map for our community work and I think that's what counted in our favour.

“And Chitty is just such a lovely show. You have got the children in it and children sell tickets which is a massive thing for us, but it is also such a great musical in itself. There is a massive appetite out there for good titled musicals especially in the amdram world where this opportunity just really doesn't come up very often. And it will all be done to exactly the same standards and the same values that we put into our pantomime.”

It will certainly be one of the most ambitious shows ever: “It is a big budget show, and the star of the show of course is the car. But you have got to find a car. There are a lot out there which have done very good service to the show but we wanted to go bigger and better and we managed to find the car that was used in the last UK touring production with Jason Manford. Somebody bought the car. Jason Manford tried to buy the car but he was outbid, but we managed to track down that car and that's the one we're going to use and it is actually going to fly. Other productions will have a sort of illusion of flying using hydraulics but with this it really is going to fly.”

And Jack is delighted to be directing: “I think my performing days are over though I still love doing pantomime. I lie a little bit because I did Shrek last year. It was a great one-off to go back to my roots but performing is not something I particularly want to do these days apart from the pantomime and this is just such a fantastic opportunity to direct. I just love seeing the creation come together and it's definitely fantastic to be working with the children. You forget just how much talent there is around in the area. They really are absolutely fabulous.”

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