Walking With Dinosaurs, Metro Radio Arena

Gordon Barr, Evening Chronicle

TIME flies past when you’re having fun - and last night we travelled 200 million years in little over an hour an a half.

We were witnessing what amounted to the biggest acts ever to have appeared at Newcastle’s Metro Radio Arena, in the shape of Walking With Dinosaurs.

Having thrilled audiences in Australia and America, it is now the turn for us Brits to be transported back in time and marvel at an era when dinosaurs ruled the earth.

I first saw the show last October in the States and have raved about it ever since. Last night, it all came flooding back to me why I enjoyed this piece of ‘theatre’ so much.

There’s simply nothing else like it out there and the dinosaurs truly are brought to life.

Generations of family enjoyed the opening night. Rob Carroll plays a paleontologist and acts as a narrator, taking us through the various dinosaur periods, from Triassic to Cretaceous.

His narrative is educational, but way over the heads of the younger members of the audience, who instead have the dinosaurs themselves and the sound effects to keep them entertained, as well as some wonderful touches, such as the springing up of colourful vegetation for the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods.

Ten species are represented from the 200 million-year reign of the dinosaurs, with the show depicting the dinosaurs’ evolution, complete with the climatic and tectonic changes that took place and which led to the demise of many species.

While the show starts quite tamely, it builds throughout, leading up to the beast just about everyone is waiting to see - the Tyrannosaurus Rex, the terror of the ancient terrain.

Along the way we also meet the likes of the Plateosaurus and Lilienstemus from the Triassic period, the Stegosaurus and Allosaurus from the Jurassic period and Torosaurus and Utahraptor from the awesome Cretaceous period.

The largest of them all, the Brachiosaurus, is 36ft tall, and 56ft from nose to tail. Let’s not forget the monstrous flying Ornithocherius, which welcomes us to the second half of the show.

We’re there as the dinosaurs fight for survival and supremacy - from the ripple of their skin to the glint in their eyes.

Presented by The Creature Production Company with the BBC, you soon forget you can see the human legs on the smaller animals, and the driving chassis on the larger ones, such is the authenticity.

We watch them walk, hear them roar - and they use every inch of the arena to great effect, so everyone gets a close-up and do indeed go walking with dinosaurs.

I could quite easily go and watch it again tonight, and the following night.

The good news is tickets are still available and, while pricey, they are worth every penny,.

I’ll leave the final word to my eight-year-old nephew Jimmie Kidd, who sat entranced (and silent - a first for him) throughout, summing up the evening by saying: "Coooool!!"

:: Walking With Dinosaurs is at the Metro Radio Arena until Sunday 12th July.