"THEY were, Mr Holmes, the footprints of a gigantic hound!" Without my book of quotations, I am pretty sure that is one of the great lines from The Hound of the Baskervilles, one which held readers of The Strand magazine enthralled.
 
It is a line which also pops up in this new stage version of the book from the wacky theatre company Peepolykus (pronounce it People Like Us).
 
So Sherlockians will appreciate the show along with others who just like a good laugh. And above all, this is a good laugh. Well, even more than that.
 
I had to keep wiping my eyes at humour which was consistently of the loosen-your-belt variety.
 
A company of just three told the tale in a silly, highly theatrical fashion in which the show itself was stopped on occasions because of something going horribly wrong (on purpose, of course).
 
An opening scene on the moor with a chap being attacked by the (unseen) hound was quite unnerving until the lights went up and it was admitted that they had forgotten to warn people with heart problems they might suffer as a result (something to do with theatrical insurance, etc).
 
Sherlock Holmes was played by a Spanish actor, Javier Marzan, with an extremely thick accent, something which also brought the show to a shuddering halt (apparently someone in the audience had complained they could not understand a word of "the dago" and Marzan was naturally upset).
 
Another time one of the actors had been threatened with death and declined to go on.
 
But amid this lunacy, the play - adapted by the company and Steven Canny - actually followed Conan Doyle's plot quite cleverly.
 
The fact that it was performed by just three actors (Mr Marzan among those taking on numerous roles including the female ones) was neither here nor there.
 
John Nicholson was a Dr Watson continuously surprised by Holmes's deductions while Jason Thorpe as Sir Henry Baskerville (together with sundry other characters) was a comic delight.
 
With a beautifully smog-filled Dartmoor set from designer Ti Green and atmospheric music, this was a Hound which may have thrilled but, above all, had its audience falling about in the aisles with laughter.