When it comes to adapting the stories of Roald Dahl for the stage the general consensus is you have to go a long way to find anyone to match David Wood.

The one-time actor and magician turned his attention to children's theatre 40 long years ago. He's been at it ever since.

A string of successes, including no fewer than six Dahl adaptations, has sealed his reputation as one of the best in the business.

No surprises then that the sure-hand of Wood is behind the current award-winning tour of Dahl's Danny the Champion of the World which opens for a five day run at Bournemouth's Pavilion Theatre this afternoon.

The production, originally produced for the Birmingham Stage Company three years ago, has enthralled audiences wherever it plays.

Young theatre-goers love the story of Danny who lives in a caravan with his dad and how he takes on the rich and powerful landowner who is planning to make them homeless.

This is absolute classic Dahl, superbly adapted, but Wood is under no illusion that the great man himself would be impressed by this stage version of his story.

"I'm sure he wouldn't have liked it," chuckled Wood. "He never really liked anything anybody did to his work. One of his daughters actually said to me that I was lucky that he died before the BFG was produced." (Dahl actually died at the age of 74 in November 1990 while Wood was still working on that first triumphant adaptation).

"The family loved it but they were sure that he wouldn't have liked it on principle."

Added to this, he says, Dahl didn't enjoy going to the theatre. "He was so tall that he always worried about people not being able to see properly and, because of his old war injuries, he could never sit comfortably."

However Wood says that he believes the brilliant but curmudgeonly author would have been pleasantly surprised at the success the adaptations have enjoyed.

Musing about Danny - his sixth Dahl - Wood is clearly proud of the part he has played in the advances in children's theatre over the past four decades.

"It's an expanding world, I'm delighted to say. There was very little theatre specifically for children back in 1967. There were pantomimes and maybe the Wizard of Oz, Toad of Toad Hall or Alice in Wonderland but there was very little original stuff and certainly not many people adapting modern day classics."

Wood himself was working as a repertory theatre actor and sometime stage magician when he decided his future lay in helping to produce quality theatre for young audiences.

Historically, theatre for children had meant low budget productions with a reputation for being tatty.

Wood has devoted much of his career to changing attitudes and fighting for the best production values possible.

"I would like to think there were a number of us who were pioneering and trying to make the authorities realise that in many way children's theatre is the most important theatre of all.

"We're not simply trying to make sure there's an audience for Cameron Macintosh in 10 year's time, we're doing it for now. We believe that children should have theatre as they grow up and be inspired by it. It should be their right, an entitlement"

That he has succeeded is clear from the fact that his name on a poster is on its own enough to ensure ticket sales.

One should be thankful that Wood chose to turn his artistic and intellectual energies to the world of children's theatre rather than pursue his original career as a conjurer.

For it sounds as though his magic act had considerably less going for it in the imagination stakes than his subsequent career.

"I thought that perhaps I should have an exotic stage name and toyed with the idea of reversing David Wood," he told me.

It never happened but Divad Doow's loss was definitely good news for generations of young theatre-goers.

  • Danny: The Champion of the World opens at the Pavilion Theatre in Bournemouth on Tuesday and runs until Saturday.