FAMOUS faces, including Dame Judi Dench, were at the New Victoria Theatre last night, for the sold-out opening night of National Theatre’s The Ocean at the End of the Lane.

Dame Judi was there to see her daughter, Finty Williams, appearing as Old Mrs Hempstock.

EastEnders' star Nina Wadia was the opening night of The Ocean at the End of the Lane. ( Piers Allardyce)

Also in attendance were EastEnders’ stars Nina Wadia and Max Bowden, actor and Celebs Go Dating star Tom Read Wilson and actors Tyger Drew-Honey, Alistair Petrie and Julie Peasgood. Other guests included the Mayor of Woking, Cllr Taj Hussain, and local councillors.

The show is an adaption of the best-selling fantasy novel by Neil Gaiman, author of works such as The Sandman, Coraline and Good Omens with Sir Terry Pratchett. 

The show, from the producers of War Horse and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, is a thrilling adventure of fantasy, myth and friendship, taking audiences on a journey to a childhood once forgotten and the darkness that lurks at the very edge of it.

Returning to his childhood home, a man finds himself standing beside the pond of the old Sussex farmhouse where he used to play. He’s transported to his 12th birthday when his remarkable friend Lettie claimed it wasn’t a pond, but an ocean–a place where everything is possible...

Plunged into a magical world, their survival depends on their ability to reckon with ancient forces that threaten to destroy everything around them.

ActorTyger Drew-Honey with Fluke Chotphuang. ( Piers Allardyce)

The author said his childhood is the inspiration for The Ocean at the End of the Lane.

“It began with me wanting to try and explain to my wife where I grew up and what that world was like then,” he explains. He spent his early years in East Grinstead, West Sussex.

“I couldn’t take her to where I grew up because the place had long since been demolished, and it’s now covered by lots neat little housing estates. So it was kind of an effort to try and evoke a past and a sense of place.”

The Ocean at the End of the Lane, which was Book of the Year in 2013 and has sold more than 1.2 million copies, had been rattling around his head for a while.

“I literally took the oldest idea that I had ever had,” he says. “I think it’s strange that, at the age of 61, I still haven’t used up all the ideas that I had for stories before I was 40.”