IT'S one of those classic fairytales that you never tire of. The sort you delight in watching every single Christmas no matter how many times you've seen it before.

The new stage production of My Fair Lady is even better than I remember the smash-hit film being.

As with every Cameron Mackintosh production, the attention to detail is staggeringly perfect and it shows.

This is the wonderful and much-anticipated rags to riches tale of Eliza Doolittle, based on George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion.

A coarse Covent Garden flower girl, Eliza is taken under the wing of speech expert Professor Henry Higgins.

He gives her elocution and deportment lessons and she is soon being mistaken for a princess at a society ball he promptly falls in love with her.

Amy Nuttall in the lead role was simply spectacular from the moment she burst on stage, exuding Cockney from every pore.

She left first-night audiences in Southampton positively spellbound with a perfect performance which saw her undergo a quite incredible transformation from a rough, tough but loveable girl to the dainty and delightful belle of the ball.

Amy's voice is sublime. It should now be no surprise that the former Emmerdale star and lads' mag favourite is also a Brit nominated classical singer.

Rogueish Higgins, played by Christopher Cazenove, began as the most incredibly cruel man, but he soon softened and was as enchanted by Eliza as the rest of the audience.

My Fair Lady also stars famed British actress Hannah Gordon, delightful as Henry's long-suffering mother, and the irrepressible Gareth Hale bringing a touch of comedy and a rather good singing voice to the play.

I very much enjoyed Stephen Moore as the well-mannered Colonel Hugh Pickering.

The large and incredibly talented cast were quite rightly applauded more heartily than any performance I have seen in a very long time.

Abso-flaming-lutely luvverly.

My Fair Lady runs until July 22.

My Fair Lady, The Mayflower, Southampton Tickets, priced £14.50 to £39.50, from the box office on 023 8071 1811.