AS I watched this theatrical version of the famous radio series of the 1940s, I couldn't help imagining the auditions for the show.

Director: Can you act?

Actors (muttering crossly): Are you having a laugh?

Director: What I mean is, can you play multiple parts? Can you do accents? I need German, Scottish, Cockney, Scouse, and of course, public school posh. And one of you will be roped up and suspended from the ceiling above a rotating circular saw. Is that OK? Actors: Sounds tricky.

Director: And there may be some cross-dressing. Actors: Ah.

Director: And did I mention the musical numbers? You'll need to play keyboards, drums, flute, saxophone, that sort of thing. Any problems? Actors: Is that it?

Director: Pretty much. (Pause) Apart from the singing. Can you all sing in tune? And silly me, I nearly forgot the dancing – waltz, tango, and a dazzling tap routine. Actors: Perhaps you'd like us to build the set as well?

Director: Funny you should mention that …

The six multi-tasking performers in Dick Barton Special Agent must envy their radio counterparts, who only had to stand in front of a microphone and read the script. But there again, they seemed to be having a very good time creating this slick, fast-moving spoof.

In the original radio series Richard Algernon Makepeace Barton escaped from many a dangerous situation and thus saved the world from all sorts of comic-book villains.

The new stage version, with a witty script by Phil Willmott, celebrates the square-jawed hero, but pokes fun at the absurdities of the plotting and the outdated social attitudes. The highly enjoyable result has elements of James Bond, Monty Python and good old traditional pantomime.

The tone is set by the Barton family motto: "Keep a stiff upper lip and always wear a vest." The deliciously silly plot concerns an attempt by EFIL (Evil Foreigners In London) to poison the nation's tea.

Will Dick Barton remain incorruptible and thwart them, or will he "hang up the trilby of truth and don the mackintosh of mercilessness"?

Chief villain is Baron Scarheart, a jack-booted German in giant jodhpurs, brilliantly played by Simeon Truby. His song Stress und Trauma (sung to the tune of Nessun Dorma) rattled the rafters.

Another great performance came from David Westbrook, who took up the cross-dressing challenge with gusto. Both his gospel-singing Liverpudlian housekeeper and posh panto dame Lady Lexington were truly memorable.

Kieran Buckeridge was wonderfully funny, especially as an awkward upper-class gent trying to dance. The femme fatale Marta Heartburn was played by Ally Holmes with sultry vampiness, while Matt Connor did sterling work as Jock, Dick's Scottish colleague.

Dick Barton himself may be resourceful and indomitable, but he has the innocence of an English public schoolboy.