WHAT pressure Matthew Bourne must have felt devising a new version of Prokofiev’s Cinderella ballet with the composer’s son in the room sketching the dancers at work.

But he needn’t have worried for while there are muses a plenty in this thrilling take on the rags to riches tale – 1940s films and real-life bombing raids among them – the original score remains the choreographer’s most deeply felt inspiration.

Set during the London Blitz, the piece draws on the themes of loss, isolation and hurried romance to create an interpretation that enhances the fairytale qualities of the Cinderella story while embedding it in reality.

Cinders is found in a grand townhouse with an extended step-family that includes the compulsory (not-so) ugly sisters and pitiless stepmother as well as a broken father and a complement of mischevious stepbrothers.

Instead of Prince Charming there is Harry, a dashing airforce pilot who has all the girls at the ball – or rather the Cafe de Paris dance hall – swooning.

When our heroine – whose coach and horses is a white motorbike and sidecar – scarpers the scene leaving a glittering shoe, he searches through the war-torn streets of London for its owner.

Bourne has given the fairygodmother her P45 and instead engaged a Cary Grantesque guardian angel to guide Cinderella to her one true love.

New Adventures stalwart Christopher Marney dances this role perfectly, his movements otherworldly but his charisma so definitely corporeal it almost knocks the other performers from the stage. But they hold their own with Etta Murfitt channelling Joan Crawford in her portrayal of Sybil, the stepmother, and Kerry Biggin a very endearing Cinderella.

Strong characterisation and storytelling as well as a knock-out set and costumes by Liverpool designer Lez Brotherston makes this production accessible for those unfamiliar with ballet but the choreography remains its priority.

Striking corps de ballet scenes – menacing gas-masked dancers among the ruins, celestrial pilots swirling above the clouds – contrast with intimate pas de deux, including Cinderella dancing a delightful duet with a tailor’s dummy that her imagination transforms into her handsome pilot.

At no point does Bourne take his eye off the ball, with clever touches such as Harry and Cinders bumping glasses as they go in for a kiss and The Angel moving on to his next charge as the final few notes of the score draw the show to a magical close.