Joe Pasquale is bringing Rentaghost, one of the most loved children's TV shows of the 70s and 80s, back to life in a must-see musical, that is touring the UK.

Joe has not only written Rentaghost: The Musical, based on the BBC TV series that he loved, but he is also producing the show in association with Ghostly Productions. Rentaghost: The Musical is a spectacular show featuring favourite characters from the series brought vibrantly to life: Fred Mumford, the man who fell to this death from a cross-channel ferry; Hubert Davenport, the elegant Victorian ghost; jester Timothy Claypole and nutty Hazel McWitch.

In 2001, Rentaghost came 12th in a Channel 4 poll of the 100 greatest kids' TV shows, which demonstrates the influence and popularity of the show for a whole generation of children and their parents.

Joe and his production team have worked hard to make Rentaghost: The Musical a theatre experience that families will love complete with magic, spectacle, music and Joe's voice featuring in the show as Ed the Head.

So why did Joe want to make this musical?

"It was one of my obsessions as a kid, as well as that of the show's producer Shaun Cornell. I think a whole generation of kids my age in the 70s were obsessed too, as there was no other TV show like it it was the predecessor of all this Harry Potter and ghostly stuff that's around these days, and I was really keen on magic and ghostly stuff when I was a kid. So it seems natural for me to write a show around it.

"Shaun and I sat down and discussed it for a couple of hours, and neither of us could come up with a reason why a show of Rentaghost wouldn't work we just sat there laughing about it and reminiscing about the great characters and we thought that if we both loved it so much, there must be a big nostalgia element attached that meant most of the country would love it as well.

"It's been great fun to work on and sometimes the meetings about it have descended into lunacy. It's great to be in on the ground floor of a project like this and involved in the business as well as the creative end.

"Hopefully mums and dads will come to see the show and encourage their kids to watch something they watched as children," he says.

If he was in the show Joe would like to play the jester.

"I would loved to play Timothy Catchpole but I have too many irons in the fire at the moment."

The ticket prices for Rentaghost are extremely reasonable.

Joe says: "To be honest, we haven't put on Rentaghost: The Musical to make a massive profit. What we want to do is put on a great family show and make it accessible to as many people as possible. Taking a family of four to see a show in the West End can be very expensive you could be talking £200 for tickets, and that's before you've paid for the car park and something to eat.

"I've always thought that people should get value for money when they come to see a show and it would be brilliant if coming to see Rentaghost: The Musical turned loads of kids on to the magic of live theatre.

"We were determined to keep ticket prices to under a tenner, so the most expensive seat we have is £9.50 and in some venues, they come down to £8. We purposely did that because we want people to come and enjoy it."

The production is magical and has some wonderful effects teacups stir themselves, there's an enchanted head, flying handkerchiefs, people coming out of suitcases, which is all normal for a company of ghosts.

Joe says he wanted to create a show that gave children good theatre as the youngsters are pretty sophisticated these days.

- Rentaghost
Ashcroft Theatre, Fairfield
May 6 at 2pm and 5pm.
£8.50 children, £9.50 adults
020 8688 9291