Wayne Eagling’s new Nutcracker, premiered last Friday, is the tenth version since the company was founded in 1950. Why yet another? The answer lies in the fact that Eagling knows what the critics and the public have known for the past eight years; that Christopher Hampson’s jokey version, with designs by cartoonist Gerald Scarfe, may be good fun, but doesn’t do justice to the feeling of the music, or create the warm Christmas atmosphere that people expect from this seasonal ballet. Silly costumes and snowflakes leaping out of a giant fridge may be amusing, but they aren’t true to the concept of the work.

So Eagling has gone back to tradition. His ballet starts enchantingly, with guests skating through the falling snow to attend the Christmas party. Inside, all is warmth and fun, though what must be a fault in the lighting makes Peter Farmer’s set look very dull, and lurid in Act II.

The production includes large numbers of children from the company’s Tring Park School and The Royal Ballet School. They are given a lot of dancing to do, and they add greatly to the festivities. Lowri Shone from Tring is a very charming ‘Young Clara’, acting and dancing delightfully, until she is transformed into the adult Clara of her dream, the svelte Daria Klimentova.

Eagling has gone for a slightly darker telling of the tale (a word that keeps popping up nowadays), with the Mouse King and his horde really quite frightening. The King even follows Clara through her adventures, clinging to the side of the balloon in which she and Drosselmeyer’s nephew, Vadim Muntagirov, escape the battle. He’s there in the Land of Snow, and still there during the national dances!

These are probably the most successful series of dances in the whole work, with the Spanish dance, featuring Venus Villa and Crystal Costa, accompanied by the irrepressible Yat-sen Chang, the highlight of the show.

Klimentova and the young Muntagirov (pictured) dance the final pas de deux beautifully, as one would expect from such a pair. Junor Souza is the Nutcracker brought to life, and is given some satisfying solos, and Joseph Sissons from Tring Park is an engaging Young Freddie, Clara’s naughty brother.

This is a work with a huge amount of dancing in it, and while it’s all acceptable and even enjoyable, Eagling has not created many moments that really touch the heights. That said, it’s a likeable, traditional Nutcracker, that successfully delivers the goods. The Nutcracker is at The London Coliseum until December 30. Booking: 0871 911 0200 (www.ballet.org.uk).