THE popular musical Oliver! is packed with familiar foot-tapping tunes and they were delivered superbly by the young cast of the Peppercorns, Upton's youth drama group.

Their renditions of numbers like Consider Yourself and Food Glorious Food were faultless and there were some wonderful solo performances from Jordan Richards as Oliver, Isobel Henderson as Fagin and Leoni Allen as Nancy.

Lionel Bart's musical version of Dickens' story of Oliver Twist, the little orphan boy who gets mixed up with a gang of pickpockets, is one of those musicals that is so well known that the odd forgotten line didn't really matter - the audience all knew what was coming next.

Some of the story's more dramatic moments, Oliver's capture, Nancy's murder seemed a little rushed but the set-piece musical numbers made up for it.

Consider Yourself seemed to be the cast's and the audience's favourite song and there were good performances of As Long As He Needs Me, It's A Fine Life and Got To Pick A Pocket. I thought Sophie Swan had a particularly haunting voice when she sang Who Will Buy.

It was just a shame that for some of the solo numbers the children's voices were hard to hear above the sound of the piano and other instruments.

Credit must go to all the youngsters involved for such confident performances and what looked like real enjoyment of just being up on stage.

Sue Vickers