AT the end of term I took my friend to see Guys and Dolls, being performed by pupils at my daughters’ school.

The production was brilliant and it was a wonderful, uplifting evening.

But afterwards, on the way to the car park, we weren’t buzzing with the thrill of it.

Instead we were empty and deflated. “I feel so sad, I didn’t want it to end,” my friend told me, and I agreed.

For three hours we’d escaped from reality. We’d been transported to 1950s New York and engrossed in the fun and spectacle of the show.

I hadn’t felt so down after a night out since I went with friends to see the film Mamma Mia.

Emerging from the cinema into the bleak surroundings of an out-of-town shopping centre contrasted so starkly with what we’d just seen on the big screen.

We attempted to revive our flagging spirits by popping to the 24-hour Tesco nearby where we spent our remaining cash on Abba CDs.

Escapism is all well and good while it lasts — but it ends so abruptly that we always come to earth with a depressingly loud bump.

“I’m officially in mourning — I’ve finished that book,” a friend texted after reading the novel One Day by David Nicholls, charting the relationship between two graduates over 20 years.

A colleague who also read it, had texted a few days earlier, saying more or less the same.

Whether it’s a show, a film, a book or another activity, escapism can, says one definition, be ‘a healthy means of not getting completely depressed by reality’.

But in many ways, a spell of escapism leaves you even more downcast.

Even as a child I experienced such feelings after watching a good film.

This was particularly so on Sunday afternoons, when the credits rolled after something like The Odd Couple or Breakfast at Tiffanys, and I’d remember school the next day, and homework that needed doing.

For some, escapism is increasingly becoming the norm — in Japan the average household watches more than eight hours of TV per day.

I’m not that desperate to blot out reality — with the rubbish that fills our screens I’m usually happy to turn off and get back to real life.