Clad in an oversized suit, bow tie and deck shoes, Bob Kingdom shambled onto the stage, and he was Dylan Thomas, presenting an absorbing portrait of the Welsh writer through his stories, drama and poetry.

It was quite impossible to separate actor from subject, especially as one suspects that Thomas himself spent his whole life playing the role of Dylan Thomas to great effect.

Central was Thomas' radio drama Return Journey, in which he goes back to his home town of Swansea, hoping to retrieve his former self, but seeing through his own pretensions with a merciless eye.

Kingdom brilliantly captured the multitude of characters, who variously forget or unfondly remember the fledgling reporter Thomas once.

Dylan Thomas was, by his own admission, "in love with the shape and sound of words", and there were many luscious examples: an oversized uncle in his small house "like a buffalo in an airing cupboard"; a publican "simpering like a wolf".

Kingdom captured the witty, pompous, confidential tone of the general conversation, moving into verbal overdrive for the richly characterised story The Outing, and dropping into semi-hypnotic declamatory mode for the wonderful poems.

The stunning beauty of Fern Hill sent me straight back home to the anthology.

ESTHER KAY