ROALD Dahl once said that you only have to mention the word "knickers" to make a child laugh and given the reaction of the gaggle of children packed in to see this show he certainly has a point.

You see, in brief, The Queen has lost her knickers sparking a national crisis and potentially condemning Her Majesty to a life of solitude in the palace dungeons.

Can Dilys, guardian of the royal undergarments, and Lucy, who also happens to be The Queen's biggest fan, find them before the very fabric of society is ripped at the seams?

Based on Nicholas Allan's classic tale, The Queen's Knickers returned to Bath last week for a run at The Egg from following its world premiere sell-out run at the Ustinov Studio during the Family Theatre Festival and a successful week at the Southbank Centre in London in February.

It is an energetic, quirky story wonderfully brought to life by performers Kate Copeland and Heather Saunders who, not only play their respective characters of Dilys and Lucy, but also a plethora of other personalities from the head of the Armed Forces to the bumbling police chief in charge of cracking the case. Throughout this two-woman show, Copeland and Saunders effortlessly narrate the story not only through witty dialogue but also songs and a catchy rap.

Pitching the show for children as young as three, however, is slightly ambitious as once the initial hilarity of flying knickers and the ‘knicker song’ has worn off, much of the script goes over their heads with jokes more suited to older children and even adults.

Nevertheless this cheeky and silly play is anything but dull and well worth seeing because although the premise of the story may be all about knickers, the play is definitely not pants.