I’VE been directing theatre shows for over 20 years now and each generation reinvents itself to make that job just a little bit harder each time. I have to find ‘today’s’ way of getting into actors’ minds.

The first time I was involved in children’s theatre was on stage and the craze at the time was the original, (yes first time shown on TV), Mr Bean. Anyway through to a child’s understanding was so much more successful if we could relate it to Rowan Atkinson’s mute fool.

The first children’s theatre I directed was that brilliant, fantastic, ‘I’d love to do it again’ musical, Bugsy Malone. In fact I directed it twice in the one year for different theatres and the way into any child’s mind that year was Dr Who. Dr Who had been absent for years but had just made a comeback. Any direction, character understanding or point I wanted to make had to be related to the Time Lord. (A year later it was Harry Potter).

The Great British Bake Off came in handy when I directed a group of ladies in a Willy Russell comedy – ‘Rehearsals are like cakes…. You have to follow a recipe…. You place the right ingredients in, eggs/character, flour/meaning, butter/comedy and together it creates a piece of theatre’.

Renovation and Grand Design programmes were useful a few years back – ‘The first few rehearsals are laying the foundations of a building, then with each rehearsal you build up, brick by brick, page by page until you reach opening night. Without that strong foundation, you’ll have a weak opening night.’

Computer games – ‘Each time we play we get better'.

The Regal is 80 years old this year and part of our celebrations is the community musical Oliver! We have such a rich mix of ages and abilities it’s a joy to go to each rehearsal. Yesterday I discovered this year’s directorial aide – fidget spinners. ‘You don’t pick it up and hey presto you’ve got it do you? No, you practise and you get better. That’s what we’re doing here.’

What will next year’s be?