AS well as having dozens of plays to his name David Wood is recognised as leading the field in adaptations of Roald Dahl's books.

But this would never have happened if it wasn't for Worcester.

Wood began his theatrical career in the city working under the Swan Theatre's first artistic director John Hole almost 40 years ago.

The 22-year-old Wood was hired as an actor and director after he was spotted by Hole in a number of productions. including an Oxford review directed by and starring Michael Palin.

Wood directed the very first production by the Worcester Repertory Company, The Knack.

In 1967, Hole asked him to write the venue's first Christmas show, the product of which was The Tinderbox.

"I was appearing in a pantomime at the time and I never had the chance to see it performed," said Wood.

"I don't think it was particularly good, but it was good enough for John to ask me to write another one the following year."

From there Wood's writing career mushroomed as he turned out scripts such as The Owl and the Pussy Cat Went to Sea and The Gingerbread Man, which are still frequently performed today, with a productions of the former staged at The Swan last year.

"I don't think I would have ever written any children's plays if John Hole hadn't asked me to write the Christmas show for the Swan," said Wood.

When Hole left the venue in the 70s he took Wood with him. In 1979, Wood, now a firmly established writer and director with plays appearing at the West End, set up his own production company Whirlygig.

In the 1990s Wood began adapting Roald Dahl's work for the stage with a version of The BFG, followed by the likes of The Twits, George's Marvellous Medicine, The Witches and James and the Giant Peach, a production of which is appearing at Cheltenham's Everyman Theatre.

But Wood still has very fond memories of his time in Worcester, and before I can even ask my first question he was asking me about the fate of the theatre.

"It was deeply upsetting to hear that the Swan was closing," he said. "Particularly after people like Jenny Stephens had really put everything into it, and seemed to be successful."

But it is his work, creating the seemingly impossible by adapting Dahl's epic and magical stories to the stage that brings him to the attention of Showbuzz this week.

"I think Roald Dahl is a very theatrical writer," said Wood. "By which I mean the way he writes his stories makes them work on stage.

"There is an element of melodrama, in, for instance, his villains or his child protagonists with whom the audience identify.

"James and the Giant Peach, his first children's novel, is very derivative.

"He is an orphan who lives with his two evil aunts, who are very much the two ugly sisters from Cinderella. And then a shadowy old man gives him a bag of goodies which he sprinkles on the ground which then grows into an enormous peach, which is very much Jack and the Beanstalk.

"What Roald Dahl does is bring the stories into the modern world.

"He will begin with a familiar situation, like at the start of The BFG when Sophie's reality is suddenly changed when the giant's arm comes into her room.

"In The Witches he doesn't use the image of witches as hags on broomsticks but as ordinary-looking women who meet up at a hotel in Eastbourne."

Dahl's stories, in the worlds of giants and witches don't naturally lend themselves to the stage.

In The BFG the illusion of the giant is portrayed by the actress playing Sophie having a tiny puppet of herself, and in James and the Giant Peach other devices are used to stage the magic.

"The peach has to grow and there are scenes inside it and on top of it," said Wood.

"We use things like gauze and other special effects. If we did the show with nothing and left it up to the imagination I think children would be disappointed.

"In a larger venue you couldn't really get away with having an empty stage with a black box and an actor in jeans and a T-shirt telling the story.

"As a director as well I am also aware when I am writing the staging directions for the play."

Wood is already looking at another couple of well known children's book to adapt for the stage, but these will not be Dahl's work as he tries to keep those to one show a year.

"It's just a shame that Roald Dahl is not around to write any more wonderful stories."

n James and the Giant Peach, The Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham, Tuesday, April 15, to Saturday, April 19. Tickets from £6 to £11.50 from the box office on 01242 572573.