Warminster Lower School’s production of Wind in the Willows at the Merlin last week gave the Headmaster, he said, ‘aching face muscles from smiling so much’. This is because both he and the rest of the audience had been transported by the joy and exuberance that Warminster School children brought to this classic tale.

The play, the famous adaptation by Alan Bennett, started with all the woodland characters, rabbits, otters, weasels, stoats and the like, performing a funky street dance and so bringing a youthful, contemporary buzz to the Edwardian glades of Berkshire. It also set the tone for the entire evening - this was going to be a production in which the whole cast gave it their all.

The main thrust of the story, as we all know, is about the exploits of the irrepressible Toad and how he is eventually saved from the results of his own foolishness by his loyal friends.

Matt Stone’s portrayal of Toad was masterly: swaggering, enthusiastic, capricious, mischievous and generous in equal measure. His assumed prostration in the invalid chair as he beguiles Ratty into believing he is in a terminal decline was a high point:

‘ I could have been an actor I suppose though it’s no job for someone of my intelligence.’

and it brought the house down.

Alex Shad as Ratty and Kathryn Rush as the Mole were both ‘thowoughly’ nice chaps and portrayed very well the contrasting characters of these two unlikely friends; Jordan Hitch gave a deep-throated gravitas to the role of Badger.

This is of course a landscape peopled with a rich variety of characters: Ben Higgens’ down-trodden horse Albert, Hannah Connabeer’s Bargewoman, Jess Stannard’s Gaoler’s daughter and the sinister black-clad brotherhood of Stoats and Weasels (Chris Cox, Huw Vaughan-Johns, Will Pratt, Harry Lee, Skip Greig and Hamish Godbold), were all particularly memorable.

Congratulations must go as well to those behind the scenes especially to Miss O’Brien for a charming and effective set, and props which were bound to prove a challenge: a boat for messing about on the river, a canary-coloured cart and, of course, that motor car…. In the event, all these items were satisfyingly three-dimensional and capable of movement and must have required hours of work by the production team.

Thank you to Mr Todres and Miss Hooper for directing The Wind in the Willows this year and for making such a delightful evening possible. The audience loved it and the performers quite obviously loved doing it.