Originally adapted by Philip Goulding for the New Perspectives community theatre company, in the mid-Nineties this stage version of The Titfield Thunderbolt was to be found touring village halls in the East Midlands.

Thanks to a revival by the Queen's Theatre and the Theatre Royal, it's now playing in slightly grander venues and with a Dynasty star at its helm.

But that hasn't meant losing the all-hands-to-the-deck spirit of its amateur debut. In this inventive production, the audience could find themselves part of a water chain to help keep the Thunderbolt steaming.

Following fellow-Ealing Comedies Kind Hearts And Coronets and The Ladykillers on to the stage, The Titfield Thunderbolt is based on the 1953 film starring Stanley Holloway, Naughton Wayne and Sid James, with a plot which hinges on the romance of the steam age and is driven by knockabout humour and innuendo.

The railroad between Mallingford and Titfield is losing money and British Rail is intent on closing it.

In desperation, the villagers exploit the 1947 Transport Act and decide to take over the line and run it for themselves. But the owners of the local coach company, Pearce & Crump, have other ideas.

Conflating some characters, dispensing with others and reportedly giving one a sex change, this stage version of The Titfield Thunderbolt nevertheless still requires its five-person cast to portray a village full of larger-than-life personalities, from the lecherous bus entrepreneur Vernon Crump to the alcoholic elder statesman Mr Valentine.

Steven Pinder, who played Max Farnham in Brookside, is the enthusiastic vicar who delights in the God-given opportunity to drive a train, while Kate O'Mara (Dynasty, Crossroads, Bad Girls) plays Lady Edna Chesterford, bossy lady of the manor whose grandfather started the railway.

Director Bob Carlton, creator of the successful musical Return To The Forbidden Planet, will be tackling the problem of enlivening a cosy English comedy.

But the greatest challenge falls to designer Rodney Ford. How do you put a steam train on the stage? Think cardboard cut-outs and you can, apparently, do anything.