IT looks like the RSC has got another family hit on its hands.

Adrian Noble has taken this production, originally seen on Broadway, of Frances Hodgson Burnett's classic and turned it a spell-binding way spending two hours and 20 minutes.

It remains true to the book - and yet this version has a secret twist of its own, becoming more a ghostly love story with some darker psychological twists and turns, such as brotherly rivals, along the way.

Yet it works - and the ideas are there in the original tale.

Again it's another minimalist set from the RSC, but, again, Chris Parry's lighting and designer Anthony Ward's stage just work beautifully.

Lucy Simon and Marsha Norman's music and lyrics respectively are outstanding - and some of you will need a tissue or two.

The two juvenile leads were delightful - at last British child actors who can actually do it, the singing exquisite, particularly Meredith Braun's Lilly, and Peter Polycarpou woefully underused, vocally especially.

However, if anyone deserves the end's standing ovation it's Philip Quast's tortured Archibald Craven, with a singing voice that could move mountains. Take the kids, go on your own, but see it if you can. JK