ON stage they are — literally — every child's worst nightmare.

The bonecrunching giants who are determined to making sleeping youngsters have the most terrifying dreams imaginable.

But thankfully, in reality, the gruesome threesome who make up the enormous baddies in the Octagon Theatre's production of Roald Dahl's BFG are not quite as scary.

The theatre has been transformed into a swishwifflingly, scrumdiddlyumptious wonderland filled with good dreams, greedy giants, snozzcumbers and frobscottles.

And Roddy Peters, Philip Bosworth and Richard Booth, who play the gargantuous roles of Bloodbottler, Fleshlumpeater and Bonecruncher respectively — the Big Friendly Giant's nemeses — are proving immensely popular with both family and school audiences.

Richard said: "It's a very different atmosphere when you have a majority primary school audience as opposed to families. There are lots more shouting out and interaction with the characters and 'wows', which are always great to hear.

"The children love it, and for some of them it might be the first time they've ever been to a theatre, so we want to make it a really good experience for them.

"Children will tell you straight if you aren't doing it right too — they don't mess around. They're very honest and reactive."

The actors have developed somewhat of a cult following in the town from awestruck children who meet them in the flesh.

Roddy said: "There was a class at the entrance to the theatre last week waiting for their bus back to school and when they saw us it was like we were the Beatles or something. I couldn't believe they all recognised us — they were all shouting and laughing with excitement."

Philip said: "When they see us off stage they kind of still know who we are and they look at us wide-eyed and in awe. One lad saw me half in costume and looked very alarmed. But if you remember the Quentin Blake drawings in the book, they were really scary too."

Sarah Esdaile, who previously directed James and the Giant Peach at the Octagon, has returned with David Wood's critically acclaimed adaptation of the classic children's book, which ingeniously incorporates ingenious puppetry by Michael Fowkes (Mighty Boosh Live Tour) to give the illusion of scale.

Roddy said: "When I auditioned in June the puppetry director was there with the prototype of the giant's head so we could practice trying to be the giant to see if we had any idea how to use it and lip sync with the script. There was also a simply made Sophie puppet which we improvised with, and they were delightful to work with.

"I'm quite small — I'm five foot seven and a half. Not really the size you would expect to play a giant. But when we got the finished costumes with the giant arm, giant foot and giant head, it just worked perfectly.

"It's all about perspective. If we are closer we look bigger, for example. On the set there is a shelf which is really handy to put the Sophie doll to give the illusion of scale."

The BFG is running at the Octagon Theatre until January 9.