WINNER OF THE 2014 OLIVIER FOR BEST FAMILY ENTERTAINMENT

Eleven years has passed since this ROH favourite first opened, and last year saw its first transfer to the West End. Persistence has paid off well, with a coveted Olivier Award for Best Family Entertainment, and now is considered part of the London must-see shows for Christmas. This year, The Wind In The Willows will be burrowing into the Vaudeville Theatre from November, for its second year-residency in the West End.

WHAT IS IT ABOUT?

This joyful production brings to life Kenneth Grahame's classic tale of four unlikely anthropomorphic friends - a mole, a rat, a badger, and of course, a toad - who join up to save the latter's ancestral home from being overrun. When Toad's taste of the high life sees him steal a luxury motor car and end up in prison, his hubris doesn't win him any friends. But the good-hearted Mole, dashing Ratty and gruff Badger take pity on his increasingly sorry plight behind bars and work together to spring him and save Toad Hall from a pack of dastardly weasels, who are intent on destroying it. A parable that stresses the importance of friendships, despite differences, this will be a fantastic treat for theatre fans, young or old.

DID YOU KNOW?

This ROH show has drawn on the cream of the crop of British theatre talent. Directed and chorepgraphed by world-renowed dancer Will Tuckett, it is narrated by the former Poet Laureate Sir Andrew Motion, and its elegant and ingenious puppetry is provided by none other than the man behind the War Horse creations, Toby Olie.