I just think it’s a masterpiece, and I’m over the moon that I get to be in it,” says Armstrong, before adding with customary flourish: “Well done, squirrels! You’ve earned your excellent children’s entertainment bay-adge!” HEY DUGGEE THE LIVE THEATRE SHOW is presented by award-winning theatre producer Kenny Wax and theatre and live entertainment promoters Cuffe and Taylor in association with Live Nation.

Fans of the smash hit CBeebies series HEY DUGGEE are delighting in the Olivier Award-winning ‘joyous’ interactive stage show. Hey Duggee The Live Theatre Show is adapted for the stage by Vikki Stone (#zoologicalsociety – Royal And Derngate, Romeo And Duet – ITV) and Matthew Xia (The Wiz – Hope Mill Theatre, artistic director Actors Touring Company). Matthew also directs the production and Vikki is musical supervisor and arranger. Making Hey Duggee is a highly collaborative experience, says the show’s script editor and writer Jenny Landreth, even if it is ultimately Orchard’s vision. She thinks there’s a misunderstanding about who the show is written for. “People have said to me: ‘It’s clearly a show written for adults that kids also enjoy,’ which is not the case. Our aim is to entertain our young audience. We’re not on some secret mission; nothing is: ‘Wink, wink, this one’s for the grownups.’” This is the first-ever theatrical production of the hugely popular CBeebies series, bringing Duggee and friends to life through extraordinary puppetry and storytelling, with families able to see their TV heroes live on stage. Sometimes, those characters carry a message: Rochelle in The Making Friends Badge uses a wheelchair, and Mr and Mr Crab are married, although there are no gay rights badges or disability badges. Instead, inclusivity is left as a natural aspect of the show. “It would be disingenuous to say that we didn’t think about inclusivity, but we didn’t want to be preachy with it,” says Orchard. One of the questions he is most commonly asked is: why, when all the mums and dads arrive with their children at the start of each episode, the crocodile Happy has an elephant for a parent. “Most people get that he’s adopted, but I’m pleased we are posing that question, even if we don’t explicitly answer it on the show,” he says.