Why Enid Blyton is precisely what the world needs right now

A new musical based on the books of Enid Blyton is precisely what the world needs right now, reckons Lara Denning who plays Aunt Fanny in The Famous Five at Chichester Festival Theatre from October 21-November 12.

“It's a glorious show,” Lara says. “When you think of all that is going on in this world and that all things are quite grey at the moment, it is lovely to have a glorious British wholesome musical which is going to bring an awful lot of joy and it's got some really lovely moments.

“And it has been lovely watching the reaction of the kids. They're just so invested in it. We have a lot of puppetry. We have Timmy the dog as a puppet and he upstages us all the time!

“My godson reads Enid Blyton and I was quite shocked to discover that he did. He reads lots of the Famous Five stuff and I think Hachette have changed bits and bobs to make it more current and changed some of the things that probably don't bode too well in 2022 about the books.”