'Harry Potter and the Cursed Child' at the Palace Theatre

I've liked the Harry Potter stories since I read the first book. Then the films started to emerge. Then, a few years ago, the stage show. I got tickets at Christmas to see the show and the day finally came when I could make my seat a couple of weeks ago, and I did. After queueing to get in, bag search and body pat-down, the first thing I saw on getting into the theatre was the big merch stall selling wands for £32 as well as scarves for the four Hogwarts houses and goodness knows what else. Being sensible, I saved my money and went to spend it in the bar instead. The Palace isn't one of my favourite theatres due to the limited sight lines from many of the seats but these seats in the dress circle were perfect so I was looking forward to great things. And , thankfully, the play delivered!

Here we are, 19 years later and Harry works for the Ministry of Magic and his youngest son, Albus, is heading off to Hogwarts. He's with Rose, Hermione and Ron's daughter but on the Hogwart's Express he meets Scorpius, the clumsy and loud son of Draco Malfoy and against all odds they become friends. Both have to live down the reputations of their fathers' and that binds them together even more. It's when Albus overheard his dad talking about the death of Cedric Diggory that he actively hunts out the time travelling device to 'correct' the past that it all starts going wrong... seriously wrong.

JK Rowling asks us all to #KeepTheSecrets so I will and won't tell you what happens. But it was great fun and made me gag to see the second play the following night. Talk about cliff-hangers!

There were lots of swirling cloaks on stage as the scenery changed, atmospheric lighting and magical transitions as we all gawped art the stage and the special effects. One minute the play is about the young people and the next it's about Harry, Hermione and Ron with added Draco for good measure. It's a nicely crafted piece with something there for everyone.

I thoroughly enjoyed the play, the suspense and cliff-hangers. In a way it's the story and the characters that matter and it doesn't matter who the actors are, they're a cypher into a bigger world. The only actor I'd really pick out was Jonathan Case as an over the top Scorpius who makes sure you notice him whenever he's on stage. A lot of thought has gone onto the presentation of this play and I particularly liked the projection of Voldemort sigils all over the theatre at the start of part two. It's nice that someone was given the job of creating atmosphere for the audience in this show. Well done people!