Terry the burping turtle had at first seemed surplus to requirements. This was especially so through his initial reluctance to burp on the orders of his operator, the actually-rather-busy ‘Idle’ Jack (Tucker). This was only the first of the technical gremlims to trouble the affable comedian. Later we were to witness the sudden severing of one of his false legs during a high-kicking dance routine — to the vast amusement of his stage mum, Graham Hoadly’s Sarah the Cook, and the audience.

But turtle Terry’s importance to Milton Keynes’s good-looking production of Dick Whittington became obvious midway through the second half. By then our hero Dick (Joel Montague) and his friends — including, of course, Tommy the cat (Kayleigh Wilson) — were heading for exotic parts in The Good Ship Lollipop, prop. Alderman Fitzwarren (Phil Snowdon), whose daughter, and Dick’s squeeze, Alice (Gavin and Stacey star Joanna Page) was also aboard. The voyage, alas, was abruptly terminated when King Rat (The A-Team’s Face, Dirk Benedict) scuttled the vessel.

There followed a thrilling ‘Jacques Cousteau’ adventure in which the audience, by now in special glasses for 3D film effects, followed Terry into confronations with a giant octopus, a looming Jaws-like shark and other creatures of the deep. This was truly exciting, and a far-cry from the DayGlo fish on poles usually offered at this point by less upmarket Dick Whittingtons.

Here First Family Entertainment has clearly chucked a shedload of cash at the show, as is clear from all the glittering finery sported by Fairy Bowbells (Shona Lindsay), Sarah the Cook and the eight-strong ensemble of dancers (there are well-dressed junior hoofers too).

All look especially alluring in scenes at the Cypriot Royal Palace. This unusual destination for Dick’s fortune-hunting journey is necessary to explain the presence as Cypriot royal personages of line-dancing father and son duo Stavros Flatley (left). The whoops of glee with which their arrival was greeted suggested that to a person the MK audience was composed of Britain’s Got Talent fans.

This highly entertaining show (director Christopher Dunham) continues until January 16. Box office: 0844 871 7652 (www.ambassadortickets.com/miltonkeynes).