While everyone acknowledges the genius of Frederick Ashton, many run screaming to the exit at the thought of his pigs on pointe.

The British choreographer created a dance film of the Tales of Beatrix Potter in 1971, which Anthony Dowell turned into a live ballet in 1992.

It is a straightforward, sun-dappled page-to-stage production aimed very much at children who audibly ooh and aah as Mrs Tiggy-Winkle, Jemima Puddle-Duck and Peter Rabbit enact their well-loved adventures in an uspoilt corner of an eternally pastoral England.

The glorious sets and costumes are a magical mix of nostalgia and restraint, with Rostislav Doboujinsky’s magnificent masks evoking Potter’s characters from the mishieveous mice to the dumb-cluck Jemima. Ashton follows through with steps that convey their personalisties, a remarkable achievement given the dancers’ faces are completely obscured.

All is sweet summer and new hay, although grown-ups may find the Berkshire Black and Gloucester Spot two cute quadipeds too many. Courting porcines really are for the under-eights.

Happily, Tales of Beatrix Potter is paired with Ashton’s Les Patineurs which provides entertainment for children and parents alike.

This earlier work (it was made in 1937) is set on a lantern-lit skating rink, with all the accidentally-on-purpose bumping into people possibilities that skating allows. Again, the sets are wonderful, as are the costumes with the dancers swooshing by with fur-trimmed allure.

Steven McRae and Laura Morera stood out as two dancers who both mastered Ashton’ s dizzying steps and understood the ballet’s flirtatiousness. The rest of the cast either mastered the steps without flirting, or the flirtation without the steps.

In rep until 13 Jan. Information: 020 7304 4000. www.roh.org.uk