M.B.DRENNAN on the welcome return of Tolkien's The Hobbit to the Oxford Apollo

I don't know. They get such a bad press. Sit on your backside all day, demanding massive wealth, and letting everything round you burn to the ground, and suddenly everyone has it in for you. No, I'm not talking about the firefighters.

There are far fewer reasons to be sympathetic with fire-breathing Smaug in J.R.R.Tolkien's The Hobbit. The evil dragon long ago killed the King Beneath the Mountain, the dwarf lord Thror. Now his grandson Thorin is returning to drive out the monster . . . with a small handful of friends. It looks like a tall order. The dragon is a nasty piece of work - and convincingly portrayed, too.

There's not a lot more to be said for the greedy dwarves and their eponymous hobbit friend, Bilbo Baggins, whom they have recruited as a burglar to steal some of the treasure on which Smaug rests. All set on winning back the gold of the Lonely Mountain, they bungle ineptly from one disaster to another. It's a miracle they ever get it right - although you expect that Gandalf has a hand in it all along.

James Bradshaw's quaint yokel hobbit is a study in quiet courage - exactly as Tolkien would have envisaged - and Darren Ormandy's Thorin is confident. The other dwarves make a fine contribution, their songs delivered with a verve which makes for oddly touching moments in the overall adventure.

Adaptor Glyn Robbins has a wide audience in mind - major plot events, regular excitement, simple dialogue, clear staging. As a result, the play is a sequence of mini-adventures, bouncing along with each new challenge.

Roy Marsden's direction is faithful to these ideas: he regularly schedules exciting scenes, unexpected appearances, and uses a rapid pace. Lavish set and costumes complete the illusion. The only major criticism falls on the wishy-washy combat, in which notably rubber swords keep missing people by metres. A number of unconvinced children behind me looked less than awestruck.

Those expecting the recent Lord of the Rings film may need to adjust their television sets: what you will get is nothing of the sort. The story is a fairytale adventure, not a great mythic drama. The Hobbit is a 'kiddy' production for the most part, and those who were there mostly loved it - although also good fun to watch if you put yourself into panto mode and don't take things too seriously.

If you're not too judgemental, it's a rip-roaring yarn: good family entertainment - and I do urge you to take the kids to see it - but that's probably where it ends. Purists, stay away.