Preview: The Wolves In The Walls, West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds, October 25 to November 4

Those who recall his puppets for Shockheaded Peter from 1998 will be delighted that Julian's artistry is returning to the West Yorkshire Playhouse next week. Let's not dwell too long on the Shockheaded past.

"For me and director Phelim McDermott, we've done an awful lot both individually and together since then; had some successes, had some failures, so it's not a show in my head. It's only when reviews come out and they still mention it that it comes back to me, but to me it's irritating to make the comparison because Shockheaded Peter wasn't a children's show," says Julian.

"It was an adult show that mocked children's shows, and 12 children were bumped off by the end, whereas The Wolves In The Walls is a children's show. Shockheaded Peter was full of irony and was a show about failure and about theatre.

"In The Wolves we enter into the world of a child who hears creeping, creaking noises from behind the wallpaper and thinks they are wolves because they are wolves."

In creating his design and puppetry for the National Theatre of Scotland's debut production, fellow Scot Julian has applied an adult design philosophy. "I don't think the visual side of a show has to be adapted for a young audience. I think it's a very textured design and that's a different way to do it because it doesn't talk down to children.

"The play plunges straight in and takes itself seriously and the child, Lucy, seriously, and so it's beautiful and scary, and rather than being ironic, it's a genuinely moving and involving drama," he says.

"The good thing about this collaboration is that none of us has a background in children's theatre, so we're not doing it to a formula."

What's more, Gaiman and McKean do not usually write for children. "Neil started with graphic novels and cartoons, Dave was a graphic artist, who did lots of album covers, and so their book is a lot edgier than other works for children - and our show is quite edgy too," Julian says.

"It's an unusual piece that seems to entrance them, but they have to work to a certain extent; there's a lot of detail, a lot unexplained stuff, so it's great if they can make more than one visit.

"Set wise, I look for a kind of narrative in the scenery, and this time it's all about what's behind the walls, so we have lots of layers of gauze and that definitely draws them - and we've now made it funnier and scarier than it was when we started in March."

The wolf puppets are central to the scares in store.

"This has been an interesting job because there's a visual style already established in the book, where the wolves appear in sort of sketchbook form. We've decided to leave them as they were first drawn, so they're still scary and I've chosen to make them in Hessian - jute sacking - which is such an expressive cloth with a lot of character depth," says Julian.

"I didn't want mock fur! All the time I'm trying to play it on the edge between what's funny and what's frightening."

Why do wolves so fascinate us, Julian, when they have long left the building in Britain?

"I guess it goes back to a time when they were out there and they were hungry. When we did the show in Glasgow, the wolf sanctuary brought in some wolves for us to see, and the amazing thing about them is that they're beautiful, but you feel a dangerous presence. It's that thing that they could turn at any moment," he says.

"They have a split personality: they look cuddly and maybe a bit stupid but then you realise they're razor sharp; they know what's going on and they can have you in a second. It's interesting that in the flesh they don't look they've been made to look in fairytales. Face to face, they look placid until they turn."

Improbable and National Theatre of Scotland present The Wolves In The Walls, West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds, October 25 to November 4. The show is "for everyone aged over seven who is not a scaredy cat". Box office: 0113 213 7700.

Charles Hutchinson