IT’S DELICIOUSLY ironic, isn’t it? for all his gadget-packed Aston Martins, and his BMWs bristling with manly extras, it’s not Ian Fleming’s sleek and sexy Bond mobiles that we’ve taken to our hearts.

They might win any game of Top Gear Top Trumps, but would still finish a long way down the track – in our affections at least – behind a cobbled together, cumbersome, 1912 chassis, with a spluttering back-end and decidedly dodgy timing.

Oh, sure, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang can float, and it can fly. But how it manages to get anywhere without a Tom-Tom we’ll never know.

Yet, despite its Edwardian engineering, Chitty has proved to be something even more priceless: a rather nifty convertible.

It’s a brave mechanic who takes a well-oiled celluloid machine into the garage, strips her down and rebuilds her for the stage. And most fail (‘Gone With The Wind’ anyone?)

Yet, somehow, the stage musical of the beloved 1968 children’s classic passes its MOT with (literally) flying colours: it emerges, gleaming from the workshop, into the best pantomime you’ve ever seen.

All the requisite ingredients are here. The baddy – the wonderfully camp and angular Child Catcher, played with relish by Dean Maynard; the double act, the bumbling king, the dashing buttons and the wholesome leading lady.