I was desperate to see the stage adaptation of one of my favourite films, Miyazaki's My Neighbour Totoro, but the price of tickets (plus travel to London) made it beyond my means. I finally justified it by calculating we hadn't been to the theatre for quite a while so could count it as two or three visits in one, but by that time it had sold out and the run was about to end.

But then a second run was announced, so last April (2023) I gritted my teeth (tickets shouldn't be this expensive), booked tickets for March 2024, and, at last, we all went up to the Barbican last week, two days before the end of the second run.

And I'm so glad I did - my wife and I loved it, the children loved it, it was a wonderful production. The staging was incredible, the acting was spot-on, the music was enchanting - it was all the things the film is - funny, heartwarming, moving and uplifting. Huge congratulations to the performers and creative team.

It's a long time since I visited the Barbican - in fact the last time was September 2008 ... on the eve of a hospital visit for an operation I had to have, we went up to see Osamu Tezuki's Bagi, introduced with a talk by the always marvellous Helen McCarthy. There was a splendid exhibition of Tezuka's art as well (prints mostly) which was astonishingly good - all part of the Barbican's Tezuka Season.

Hopefully Totoro will warrant a third run at some point, maybe a touring production, in which case I heartily recommend you get along and see it.