UK's favourite family circus is in Milton Keynes until Sunday

John Lawson's Circus has set up its Big Top in Newport Pagnell's Riverside Meadow as part of a national tour.

The circus will be staging two performances a day until Sunday, when it will move to Biggleswade and then Houghton Regis.

It features all the thrills and spills, breathtaking acts, glamour and humour you would expect from the UK's favourite family circus.

There are two performances today (Thursday) at 4.30pm and 7.30pm and tomorrow (Friday) at the same times.

Saturday's performances are at 2pm and 5pm, followed by a morning show at 11.30am on Sunday. The final show will be at 2.30pm on Sundays.

Tickets for all performances are available via the John Lawson Circus website here.

They are usually £12 but the circus is offering a 33% discount, so the price is reduced to £8 a head.

A spokesman for the circus said: "This year we are proudly supporting The Rotary Club of Great Britain. We will be visiting over 50 venues throughout our season. That’s over 50 times we have to build up and pull down the Big Top, so as you can imagine we work like a well-oiled machine ( well most of the time!).

"All the artistes and staff help with the Big Top and moving our little village around the country plus performing in the ring and making candy floss, popcorn, hot dogs etc. When you work on a small circus you have to be multi- talented and we all pitch in with the day-to-day logistics.

"So when you watch our show, just remember the beautiful girl high in the roof of the Big Top will also be the girl who was up at 6am driving a lorry to our next venue (with no make-up on) or the Clown who makes you laugh will also be swinging a sledgehammer to drive the 5ft stakes into the ground to secure the Big Top.

"But no matter how hard the work is, or how long the days are, we wouldn’t change a thing."