PATRICK BARLOW’S adaptation of The 39 Steps is a rip-roaring, well, I say, how utterly splendid kind of an evening.

It takes its audience on a fast-paced, often bumpy, ride through Thirties London and the Scottish Highlands, alongside its main protagonist, Richard Hannay (Dugald Bruce-Lockhart).

Despite the world around Hannay seeming increasingly dark as world war looms, he apparently seeks nothing more than a good whisky, a pipe full of tobacco and the perfect pencil moustache.

Having seen the BBC TV version at Christmas, I was surprised and thoroughly entertained by the much more slapstick style of the stage production.

The show is very funny indeed, aided by the oh-soinnocent sauciness of Pamela (Katherine Kingsley), a naive young city girl who finds herself flung into helping Hannay escape the long arm of the law following a murder in his city flat.

There are also fine performances from Richard Braine and Dan Starkey, who take on a number of roles, from police officers to married Scots hoteliers.

Dugald Bruce-Lockhart holds the piece together extremely well as Hannay, fitting snugly into the role of bachelor-man-about-town thrown onto his wits to foil the sinister Germans.

So sit back, relax, leave your troubles at the door and enjoy a jolly good show, old chap.

■ Until Saturday. Box office: 0191-332-4041