WE SAT down to watch Room on the Broom at The Haymarket theatre, then whoosh it was over.

The hour-long show about a witch and her cat, and their adventure on a broomstick, flew by super-quick, as we were led through Tall Stories' adaption of the best-selling picture book by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler.

The witch and her cat pick up some hitch-hikers on their journey - a friendly dog, a beautiful green bird and a jumpy frog - but the broomstick isn't strong enough to carry all five and ends up snapping in two.

The book takes minutes to read, so it was interesting to find out how Tall Stories would stretch out the tale to fill an hour.

With jolly songs interspersed throughout, and interaction between the characters, the additional content naturally fell into place between the well-known poetic lines from the book.

The delightful animals were brought to life as puppets operated by two male actors, with the dog bounding on set, licking everything in sight and wagging his tail enthusiastically while the green bird flew gracefully over the stage.

I need not have worried that the dragon which appears at the end of the story might frighten my two-year-old son.

In fact, the simple production has carefully been put together so that there is nothing to alarm the younger audience, even if that meant there were few surprises in terms of special effects, which you might otherwise expect from a show featuring magic spells, flying and dragons breathing fire.

As one of their first experiences of going to the theatre, my son and his cousin were easy-to-please and sat mesmerized, both particularly fascinated every time the lighting changed.

It was the perfect length for pre-school children, and a great introduction to the theatre for those who might be overwhelmed by high-tech stage productions.