It has to be high up your Norfolk bucket list of experiences - a visit to Great Yarmouth’s Hippodrome Circus.

Leave the cacophany and candy-floss atmosphere of the seafront behind and step inside an arena where you can feel the history of great performers having moved audiences for more than a century.

Architecturally. atmospherically, it is a truly magical place. And once the spotlights start dancing, magic is sure to happen.

Over three decades, director Peter Jay has melded a show where end-of-the-pier rumbustiousness meets world-class circus skills.

This summer his son Jack has taken it on and added his own take with fresh music and subtle innovation.

Jack’s double act with Scottish comedian Johnny Mac now has an assured ease about it and the duo soon have the audience laughing riotously with their quick-fire sketches developed especially for the summer season.

The show immediately hits the heights- literally - as members of the Romanian springboard act, Alinte Troupe, soar through the air in one of the most breathtaking routines I have seen at the Hippodrome.

The pace does not relent in the slightest as Vladimir Georgievsky, fresh from Las Vegas, leaves the audience gasping - and wincing - with his accident-prone comedy trampoline act.

The reception he receives recognises a true one-off comic genius.

Both sides of the interval, two acts stretch the bounds of what is possible in daredevil routines that leave spectators on the edge of their seats.

The Globe Bike Riders, from Brazil, prove that it is feasible - just- for three motorcyclists to squeeze inside a not-so-large globe and ride round together at break-neck speed.

Then Gengis Van Gool from Switzerland proves he is a master of the Wheel of Death, a Hippodrome favourite, bounding like a mad man on the inside and outside of a giant ‘hamster wheel’.

Polish Duo Creative exhibit extraordinary strength, control and grace in an artistic balancing routine.

The magic of the best Hippodrome show I have seen is completed by the slick routines of the Estelle Clifton Dancers and Hippodrome Show Swimmers - I never tire of the Hippodrome’s spectacular water feature that transforms the ring into a giant pool.

For this unmissable family holiday treat call the box office on 01493 844172.