CALLING all Bingsters! CBeebies favourites Bing and his friends are going on tour in the first ever Bing stage show!

Bing Live! will visit the Cliffs Pavilion on Monday August 20 and Tuesday August 21, as part of a major UK tour in 2018.

It could be the perfect first theatre trip for pre-schoolers and their families.

Join Bing, Sula, Coco and Pando as they learn how to tell stories by pretending, dressing-up and singing songs. Flop and Amma are there to help, but in this magical world of make-believe things don't always go according to plan…

The CBeebies favourites are brought to life via "magical puppetry".

Bing Live! is produced by Minor Entertainment (In the Night Garden Live) and directed by Will Tuckett, guest principal character artist of the Royal Ballet, whose production of Wind in the Willows won an Olivier Award for Best Entertainment in 2014.

The show will also bring together a first-class creative team. Bing Live is adapted for the stage by Helen Eastman with costumes and puppet design by Tahra Zafar. As head of costume, hair and make-up for the Olympic and Paralympic opening and closing ceremonies staged in London, 2012, Tahra managed the production of 23,000 costumes for all four Ceremonies.

Her film projects include Star Wars VII The Force Awakens, X Men-First Class, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and The Fifth Element and for television: In the Night Garden, Zingzillas and The Adventures of Abney and Teal.

Echo: Bing and friends

Since its launch on CBeebies, Bing has been a huge ratings hit and is the number one pre-school show on BBC iPlayer.

Celebrating the joyful, messy, reality of preschool life, Bing finds the big stories in the smallest moments that little ones and the grown-ups in their lives will recognise, whether it's dropping your ice-cream or losing your favourite toy.

The series has won an International Emmy Award in the Kids' Pre-School category in 2016, a Writer's Guild Award and a BAFTA nomination for Best Pre-School Series.

The animated series, which saw actor Mark Rylance make his children's television debut voicing Flop, is produced by Acamar Films.

Mikael Shields, CEO of Acamar Films and producer of Bing added: "Seeing Bing take a leap from the screen to the stage is hugely exciting for all of us at Acamar. We are thrilled to be working with Minor Entertainment to bring the Bing Live shows to our young audience. Introducing Bing fans to possibly their first experience of theatre is a tremendous creative challenge and Minor has shown imaginative flair, exceptional attention to detail, and their passion for bringing preschool characters to life has been evident throughout our collaboration with them. We can't wait to watch the reaction from Bingsters to seeing Bing and Flop on stage next year."

For booking visit southendtheatres.org.uk