Lucky Russian schoolboy Ilya Gavrichenko scored a top character in his school play and proudly told his parents he was playing Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. His parents dutifully made the perfect costume complete with the dictators moustache! 

Ilya, who is 12, was dressed in a white shirt, jacket, military trousers and army boots when he arrived at the school in St Petersburg.

It was only when he arrived on the night of the performance that Mammy and Daddy Gavrichenko realised their son got it a tad mixed up and he was in fact supposed to be playing a very different role - Joseph of Nazareth. 

The show must go on as they say and unfortunately there was no time for a costume change! So the school was left with a very odd production when Stalin accompanied the Virgin Mary to Bethlehem!

His father Fedor, who made the costume, said: 'We were all ready for him to be a success.'

Despite the misunderstanding over the boy's part in the play, Ilya still kept the audience entertained with his performance.

'He was supposed to accompany the Virgin Mary but there was no time to change the outfit,' his father said. 

'Each time he went out on stage, the mothers were in hysterics, crying and yowling from somewhere under their chairs.