THE Octagon Theatre is getting ready for a very happy Christmas with its most successful festive production ever.

Bookings for Roald Dahl's The Twits are the best ever at the Bolton theatre and an extra week of performances has been added to cope with demand for tickets.

Sales have outstripped those of the theatre's two previous best-sellers, The BFG and George's Marvellous Medicine, also by Dahl. Many performances of The Twits - a tale about a smelly couple who play nasty tricks on each other - which runs from Friday, November 25, to Saturday, January 14, now only have gallery seats available.

Octagon marketing manager Karen Douglas said: "Obviously the Christmas shows tend to be high sellers because of the timing and the fact they have longer to sell, but East Is East, which is currently showing, achieved the highest pre-sales of any non-Christmas show at the theatre.

"It is an amazing achievement considering that five years ago, the Octagon was set to close after the funding was pulled and there was a huge campaign to get it reinstated, and a lot of help from local businesses to make sure it survived.

"We have come a long way in that time and we felt with the way sales were going, The Twits could stand another week, and all the shows are close to selling out now, which is fantastic."

The Twits is one of Roald Dahl's most popular stories and featured in the BBC Big Read Top 100, a poll of the UK's all-time favourite books.

Directed by Lancashire-born Marcus Romer, a co-producer of recent Octagon production Beautiful Thing, the cast includes Octagon newcomers Naomi Cortes (Mrs Mugglewump), Ebony Feare (Roly-Poly Bird), Nicky Goldie (Mrs Twit), Jesse Inman (Mr Twit) and Michael Lambourne (Mr Mugglewump), and features the return of Zoe Lambert (The Narrator), who stole the show in the theatre's recent productions of The Firebird and The BFG.

The Twits will be followed in the theatre's new season by Arthur Miller plays a View From The Bridge and Broken Glass.

l Tickets are £7 to £14.50, with family tickets at £36 and £40 from the Octagon ticket office on 01204 520661 or at www.octagonbolton.co.uk