A few months ago I won tickets from a fellow blogger to see Ben & Holly Live! I have been so excited for months as we had never been to a show yet – I think I may have been slightly more excited than J actually… I booked the show for last week and the nearest theatre with a date we could attend was Nottingham at 4pm. With a 1.5 hour journey ahead of us and J finishing nursery and hubby finishing work at 1pm, I had my schedule that we absolutely needed to stick to to keep my anxiety in check! I decided we would get the park & ride into Nottingham so we didn’t have the trouble of finding parking then running late.

Before I collected J from nursery N & I had our lunches, but N decided to have a nap in his highchair so I had to wake him to get him changed and he wasn’t very happy! As soon as we got home with J I got him changed too and hubby arrived home at the same time. I wanted to be leaving by 1.30pm, but by something short of a miracle, we were ahead of time and left the house at 1.25pm! The journey there was smooth with no delays so it put me at ease as I was nervous about taking the boys to the theatre for the first time, especially N who I knew wouldn’t want to sit still (hence the bag full of snacks I had packed too)! The boys loved travelling into Nottingham on the tram with N stood up at the window for pretty much the whole journey. The tram dropped us straight outside the theatre which was handy, and my scheduling was spot on as we arrived in plenty of time to get our tickets and get seated – phew!

J had his obligatory photo outside the theatre with the show poster (N & I got in on the act too of course) and then we collected our tickets and spent an extortionate amount on two flashing wands – as I knew N would want J’s – and a Ben mask for J. The flashing wands were great but I was a bit disappointed as with N’s heavy handedness he dropped his on the floor and it broke (the figure fell off the top). This was after the show though on the tram on the way back to the car.

The show itself was absolutely brilliant – made better by our wonderful seats with great view!

It wasn’t too long and with a break in between where I got hubby to take N for a wander as he was getting really restless because he was tired. When I’d seen photos of the show with the heads that the actors wore, I thought they looked a little freaky (!) and J might have been scared but in real life they were fine; they looked fab actually. I loved how the show started with the voice over – “Somewhere, hidden amongst thorny brambles”… – and then the hide & seek episode. I recognised all of the episodes that they performed and found myself saying what was going to happen next! The actors were really interactive with the audience, there was lots of singing (some of the songs I am still singing nearly a week later!) and there was plenty of humour in there too just like on TV. My favourite part was the jelly flood! J’s favourite part was King Thistle. I would have maybe have liked to have seen Queen Thistle too though. In the middle of the show they used puppets for the tooth fairy episode to fly through the air, I loved this and would have liked to have seen more of it. At the end the audience were encouraged to get on our feet and do some singing and dancing and it was such a wonderful atmosphere. By the sound of it, all of the children loved it (and the adults too!).

All in all we had a brilliant time, I just dislike paying the souvenir prices (as with any performance I guess). Though I suppose I can’t really complain this time as I did win the tickets after all…

You can still catch Ben & Holly Live! at various locations until the beginning of September. 


Our rating – 4.5/5


Disclosure
I won tickets for this show and wasn’t asked to write this review, I just wanted to share our experience! All thoughts & opinions are honest & our own.