IT was a close shave - but one of the stars of hit musical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang only made it on stage by the skin of its teeth last night.

Mari, one of ten trained dogs which bound on to stage during the Toot Sweets number, went missing for most of yesterday after slipping its leash and running out of The Mayflower theatre during rehearsals.

Frantic staff and the dog's handler Sally-Ann Roncescu searched in vain for several hours for the Tibetan cross fox terrier which had escaped through a stage loading bay door, after it had been opened to move a piece of scenery.

An extensive search of the theatre and the area around Commercial Road failed to offer any leads.

But the small brown and white wire-haired dog was discovered at about 5pm by backstage technicians sitting in the passenger seat of the famous Chitty Chitty Bang Bang car itself.

It was just as well as, unlike the human members of the company, there are no canine understudies.

Theatre spokesman Robin Hancox said: "While doing a test flight for the car, they were about to go into the first dive when they saw the dog in the front of the car.

"We are presuming he went back into the theatre this afternoon while we were out looking for him.

"He's safe and well but a bit damp."

Relieved handler Sally-Ann said: "The dogs have been with the show for four years now, performing eight shows a week in five different cities.

"Mari is a valuable animal, and we feared that he may have got lost as he has not been outside the area of the theatre."