It must have been around two years ago when I first got a glimpse of what would become Postcards from God: The Sister Wendy Musical.

The musical's title is enough to grab attention and although I couldn't say I was ever a fan of Sister Wendy Beckett's television tour of works of art, I certainly remember her gracing BBC Two.

Well, if I'm honest it's more that I remember the French and Saunders send up of the bespectacled holy art critic.

But still my point remains - many people will recognise her name, and I think she's an unlikely subject for a musical biography.

Yet that's what the former restaurant, the Jermyn Street Theatre, is showing until February 3.

Unlike French and Saunders' sketch this production, written by Croydon-born Marcus Reeves and Beccy Smith, is not designed to ridicule Sister Wendy Beckett but instead paints an affectionate portrait of her.

I saw Marcus's presentation of some of the songs and ideas that would become Postcards From God in 2004 at the Battersea Arts Centre.

I remember enjoying it immensely and coming away with a sense of understanding and respect for what it might have been that Sister Wendy Beckett had hoped to achieve through her televised art appreciation.

Marcus, who at that time was playing Sister Wendy - a role now handed to Myra Sands - read to the audience a letter he had been sent by Sister Beckett in which she expressed surprise that he might be so interested in her life as to write a musical about it.

Since that time the performance has become more polished - transformed from a monologue to a narrative carried along by more than 20 songs.

The performance holds on to the charm of its original subject matter and manages to avoid becoming a farce or a pastiche of the movie Sister Act.

The songs remain as uplifting and as funny as ever, particularly when the audience is presented with a glimpse of what Sister Wendy's show could have become if she ever decided to try and get down with the kids.

To say the musical is educational would be a stretch and possibly put people off seeing it - which would not be my intention but there are certainly things to learn concerning the art and artists sung about in numbers such as Salome and St John and Botticelli's Birth of Venus.

I must admit to feeling a little like a philistine until the song The Campbell's Can Soup-er Man began - thankfully I've heard of Andy Warhol - even if it is through one of my favourite bands the Dandy Warhols.

While the biography of Sister Wendy is as endearing as ever, there is a new undercurrent in the musical. An attack on the idea of celebrity being more important than talent.

Sister Wendy continually bemoans her newfound fame, in part because she is used to a life of contemplation and solitude, but also because it seems to detract from her message.

Chased by the press - presented in a way where they might as well have been snorting and wearing pig masks - Sister Wendy complains a little too often about how she'd prefer to go back to the relative comfort of isolation.

This element annoyed me. Something a friend pointed out might be the result of having an oversensitivity to seeing journalists being criticised since I am one. But I did feel that if Sister Wendy never really acknowledged the help of the media her message that art is for everyone might never have been heard accept by a select few.

To some extent, I felt that I enjoyed Sister Wendy more two years ago, but that's not to say I wouldn't recommend the musical now.

For everyone who loves to be swept away into a world of song Postcards From God certainly provides.

Billed as a vibrant and enchanting new musical portrait of renowned art nun' Sister Wendy Beckett', Postcards From God lives up to its own hype.

Postcards from God: The Sister Wendy Musical
Until February 3
Jermyn Street Theatre
Jermyn Street, London
020 7287 2875 postcardsfromgod.co.uk