Fly Davis’s magnificent set is a mysterious tangle of tall, bristly, overarching hedges.  The opening scene recalls those RSC plays of the 1980s and 90s where a funeral takes place in the rain with the dramatic view of black umbrellas making their carriers look like alien creatures silhouetted in the graveyard.  But there are much scarier alien creatures to come in Joel Horwood’s dramatisation of Neil Gaiman’s fantasy novel.

Alex as a grown up (Nicolas Tennant) has come to a funeral where he lived as a boy.  Here he meets Old Mrs Hempstock (Penny Layden) and while they are both looking at the lake, she recalls that he was her granddaughter, Lettie’s friend. This lake was what Lettie called the ocean. 

We flash back to when Alex was a boy (James Bamford).  This startles with the suicide of Dad (Nicolas Tennant)’s lodger using his landlord’s car.  The Boy is asked back to the old farmhouse kitchen where three generations of mysterious Hempstock women live.    We also see Dad trying to cope with bringing up his children after the death of his wife and perpetually burning the toast.  The Boy has a sister, Sis (Grace Hogg-Robinson) who has a high squeaky voice and is skilled at winding up her brother and who made me both laugh and squirm.