Theatre: Billionaire Boy at the Churchill Theatre, Bromley

The bestselling children’s author and comedian David Walliams has teamed up with a stage company for a new production of Billionaire Boy at the Churchill Theatre in Bromley until Sunday.

Billionaire Boy tells the story of Joe Spud, who is 12 years old and the richest boy in the country.

He has his own sports car, two crocodiles as pets and £100,000-a-week pocket money.

But what Joe does not have is a friend. So he decides to leave his posh school and start at the local comp. But things do not go as planned for Joe, and life becomes a roller-coaster as he tries to find what money cannot buy.

But it’s not a typical rags to riches story. “The reason Joe is a billionaire is because his father, Len Spud, who was just a humble man who worked in a factory, came up with this brilliant idea of creating a special toilet roll which is moist on one side and dry on the other,” said Mr Walliams.

Billionaire Boy started life as a David Walliams novel for children in 2010 and was filmed for the BBC in 2016.

Mr Walliams said: “It’s the most brilliant thing, seeing a book that you’ve written come to life on stage. You feel like a magician because what was in your head is somehow now all real, right in front of you, so it is a very exciting thing.”

The billionaire boy Joe encounters some fantastic characters on his journey, and Mr Walliams cannot help talking about one in particular.

“My favourite character in the story of Billionaire Boy is Mrs Trafe, the dinner lady, and I actually played her in the television adaptation,” he said.

And Mr Walliams has high expectations for the show. He said: “It’s a story with an emphasis on jokes and silly situations, and obviously the whole thing is quite surreal with someone having so much money.

“ I think it’s going to be a really fun theatre show and I can’t wait to see it”.