IT’s almost impossible to underestimate the wealth of young talent in this area...a talent all but epitomised by the junior members of AAODS.

In the past decade or so, under the tutelage of musical director Sarah Fowler and director Jaci Brickley Clark, the company has consolidated its reputation for high quality, high energy performances and its latest offering Return to the Forbidden Planet is no exception to this rule.

One of the first of the modern ‘juke box musicals’ billed as ‘Shakespeare’s lost rock ‘n’ roll masterpiece’ I remember being blown away when I first saw the show way back in the 1980s, with it’s unique blend of the Bard, science fiction, some of the best music of the 50s and 60s and a roller skating robot...I mean what’s not to like?

For any company contemplating staging the show what’s not to like is pretty much everything that makes the show what it is, piled on top of the challenge created by the fact that in the original each of the performers doubled up as instrumentalists.

Fortunately this did not deter the plucky Juniors - and last week saw their finished production taking off from the stage of the Borough Theatre.

Return to the Forbidden Planet is very much an ensemble piece, with great chances for everyone to take a share of the lime-light and as always the cast more than lived up to expectation.

As always - because I think it’s nice to get the Craig Revel Horwood - moments out of the way at an early stage, I’m going to kick off with the downside.

There were times in this production when I felt the challenge of the Shakespearean text overwhelmed the performers somewhat and it seemed that some were trying their best to whip through the words as quickly as possible and get onto safer musical ground - something I’ve rarely seen with this company before.

Not only did this mean that the diction suffered but also the plot, which is difficult to keep a hold of at the best of times.

This apparent lack of understanding from the actors also meant that for most part the wittier elements of the script, blending the old with the new, were sacrificed to the detriment of the production.

With those misgivings out of the way on to

the good bits...and there were many.

Musically this was AAODS Juniors at its very best and it was obvious the cast was having huge fun with the 60s hall of fame with songs which ranged from Great Balls of Fire to The Young Ones.

As Captain Tempest, who firmly believes that even on a stranded spaceship it’s still A Man’s World, Gareth James was suitable stoic as he was relentlessly pursued by Miranda played by Millie Francis, whose mature singing was perfectly suited to numbers like Teenager in Love and Hey Mr Spaceman.

Playing opposite them as Gloria and Cookie was the strong pairing of Alys Le Moignan and Luke Williams who impressed from the very start with both stage presence and their vocal ability.

Their duet Tell Him was terrific and as Cookie, Luke’s I Ain’t?Gonna Wash for a Week was slick while Alys left the theatre reeling with her emotional version of Go Now, which probably ranks as one of my favourite amateur performance moments at the Borough.

As Bosun Arras, Molly Brickley Clark - who also choreographed - showed once again that she is exactly what it says in the cast list - ‘ a good all-rounder’ while the arch Brandon Jones played it for laughs as the camp roller-skating robot Ariel.

It would have been nice to have seen at bit more skating action but frankly with the rake on the Borough stage he was lucky to stay on his feet and his spot on performance of Who’s Sorry Now more than made up for this.

The principal cast was completed by Maddie Robertson as the Navigation Officer, Ben Tilley as the on-screen newscaster and of course Kerrigan Heffernan as the mad scientist who was creating The X-Factor long before Simon Cowell and coped admirably with the technical failures which beset the production on the night I saw it.

As always the chorus was faultless with often complex harmonies in perfect blend not only in the bigger chorus numbers but when supporting the principal players.

In short this was a show which anyone who has ever listened to 60s compilation album could not fail to enjoy.

Yes, there were times when the action fell a bit flat and things didn’t quite take off with a bang but on the whole we all left the theatre smiling and humming...what more can you want of any show.