W HEN Swallows And Amazons opens at the Theatre Royal next week, it'll be the music of Neil Hannon that will be accompanying the action of Arthur Ransome's fantastical tale of youthful adventure and discovery.

The Irishman is the heart and soul of British chamber pop group The Divine Comedy, which had a string of hits in the 90s including Something For The Weekend, National Express, Becoming More Like Alfie, The Frog Princess and Everybody Knows (Except You).

He was also responsible for the Father Ted theme tune.

So how come 21 years and 18 line-up changes since their debut album, Fanfare for the Comic Muse, did he end up writing for a children's stage musical?

"I get bored easy", he says, simply.

"Largely, to begin with, it was just the need to think of an idea to do a musical. Tom Morris, the director, had come to me a while back and said 'you should do a musical' and I went 'yeah, I've always wanted to' but it took a while to pinpoint the right subject matter.

"Then I was reading Swallows And Amazons to my daughter. I'd never read it before and about halfway through I decided bingo! This seemed to be it."

Having said that, Hannon's characteristic impatience meant he wasn't completely taken with the story.

"Ransome, although a great writer, really loves sailing and camping and all that, so there are very long descriptions of these things. I was more interested in the pirates!"

Hannon's musical accompaniment has been described as the play's "secret weapon" (Daily Telegraph).

The story, set a year before the book's publication in 1930, follows the exploits of the four Walker children (John, Susan, Roger and Titty) and their recently acquired compatriots Nancy and Peggy Blackett.

All are played by adults.

It's set in the Lake District and is a tale of mystery, combat, exploration and above all, imagination.

At least three of those words are attributable to Hannon's own character – making the musician and story a perfect match.

Taking on Swallows and Amazons also suited his passion for trying new ventures.

He says: "It's really wonderful that I'm in a position where people ask me to do weird and wonderful things all the time.

"I'm currently writing a short opera for the Royal Opera House. They have a little season every year called 'opera shots' where they get odd people who shouldn't write operas to do half-an-hour pieces."

He admits: "Writing an opera is hard, so it is proving quite mind-melting.

"I've also been doing a song for a French movie and that's almost finished. And I did Celebrity Mastermind recently."

Indeed he did and won with his specialist subject, US TV sitcom Frasier.

The Divine Comedy, however, will remain his one true love. The ever-present frontman of the group now literally embodies the declaration on the band's official site that "The Divine Comedy is Neil Hannon".

Two years ago he toured solo for the first time, to promote the album Bang Goes The Knighthood.

"Currently The Divine Comedy is sitting here on the stairs wondering when he gets to go back to the studio and do some more work. I'll definitely do another album of my own shortly. I'm getting that sort of itchy feeling."

Swallows And Amazons, which enjoyed a sell-out run at The Bristol Old Vic, comes to Nottingham from Tuesday.

"It's a lovely place," he says of the city. I have a very vivid mental picture of the central square, largely because we did a terrible Radio 1 Roadshow there once.

"It was raining and windswept and there were about ten people there.

"But I also remember a very early show back in '96 when we'd really just started touring properly at Rock City.

"It's a really good venue.

"We were supporting Supergrass and it was a stonking show."

Swallows And Amazons runs at the Theatre Royal from Tuesday to Saturday. Tickets are £10 to £19 from the box office, call 0115 989 5555 or visit www.trch.co.uk.