Author: FairyPoweredProductions

A CLOCKWORK ORANGE

BY ANTHONY BURGESS

DIRECTED BY ALEXANDRA SPENCER-JONES

 

JONNO DAVIES JOINS THE COMPANY AS ‘ALEX’

Action To The Word’s award-winning all-male production of Anthony Burgess’ A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, directed by Alexandra Spencer-Jones, will return to London following its acclaimed premiere in Edinburgh in 2011 and an international tour. A Clockwork Orange opens at Park Theatre on 14 February and plays until 18 March, with a press night on Thursday 16 February.

An electrifying and testosterone filled physical theatre horror show that exquisitely captures and transcends the spirit of Anthony Burgess’ original literary masterpiece, A Clockwork Orange lures its audience into the glorious glass-edged nastiness of Manchester’s underworld. A playtime of orgiastic ultraviolence and sexuality, it’s the story of little Alex and the Droogs in their battle against the tedium of adolescence. An unapologetic celebration of the human condition, it remains as terrifyingly relevant today as when the book was published in 1962 and when Stanley Kubrick’s film caused a stir in 1971.

 

“Imaginative and striking… it sizzles with energy” ****Evening Standard

“Spencer-Jones’ production combines striking visual imagery with beautifully choreographed balletic sequences” ****Telegraph

Jonno Davies will return to the production to star as ‘Alex’, having played the role previously on two international tours. Other stage credits include A Midsummer Night’s Dream (National Theatre/Latitude), Dracula (Arts Theatre/International tour) and Shakespeare in Love (Noel Coward). His screen credits include Milk and Honey, Kingsman: The Secret Service, Spotless and Hollyoaks.

He is joined on stage by Luke Baverstock as ‘Georgie/Zophar’, Sebastian Charles as ‘Dim/Pedofil/Joe’, Simon Cotton as ‘Frank Alexander/Mum/Brodsky’, Damien Hasson as ‘Deltoid/Chaplain/Rick’, Philip Honeywell as ‘Mark Alexander/Branom/Marty/Woman’, James Smoker as ‘Old Woman/Minister/Dad/Rubenstein’, Will Stokes as ‘Billy Boy/Governor/Comedian/F-Me Pumps/Dolin/Len’ and Tom Whitelock as ‘Pete/Bromine’.

“Physical, dynamic, and arresting” – The Economist

“This is a show that everyone should experience” *****Whatsonstage.com

A CLOCKWORK ORANGE is directed by Alexandra Spencer-Jones, Artistic Director for Action to the Word, for which she has created DRACULA (Arts Theatre/International Tour), A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM (National Theatre/Latitude Festival) and CONSTANCE & SINESTRA AND THE CABINET OF SCREAMS (New Wimbledon Theatre/Latitude Festival). Her credits as Associate Director include STEPPING OUT (Theatre Royal Bath/UK Tour), the Olivier Nominated BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM (Sonia Friedman Productions), Andrew Lloyd Webber’s THE WIZARD OF OZ (London Palladium), Garsington Opera’s LA PERICHOLE, Grange Opera’s PETER GRIMES and OLIVER! and Scot William’s HOPE (Royal Court).

Alexandra Spencer-Jones said, “In a world where the pillars of leadership are crashing down around us, Burgess’ timeless masterpiece brought to stage is more urgent than ever. There will always be a disaffected youth who are not listened to. A Clockwork Orange is a brutal examination of the self versus the state in the age-old struggle for human freedom”

A CLOCKWORK ORANGE is presented by Glynis Henderson Productions, with lighting by James Baggaley and additional choreography by Hannah Lee.

 

Website: http://www.actiontothword.com/

@actiontotheword

@droogie_tweets

@jonno_davies

 

https://www.facebook.com/AClockworkOrangeShow/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/244619245798/

A Clockwork Orange will be produced by Glynis Henderson Productions. Glynis Henderson Productions produces, general manages and represents a variety of theatre, comedy and music productions. The company specialises in introducing unique and exciting new work to international audiences and international work to the UK. Glynis is an original producer of STOMP and has tour booked and managed the show worldwide including seasons in London and Paris. STOMP has performed in over 50 countries worldwide making it one of the most successful UK touring productions. Other work GHP has produced and managed worldwide include BLAM, Ennio Marchetto, Lost and Found Orchestra, A Clockwork Orange, Dracula, James Rhodes, Tubular Bells, One Man Breaking Bad, Yamato Drummers of Japan, Spaghetti Western Orchestra and Gobsmacked.

WEBSITE: http://www.ghmp.co.uk/

The Bunker 10 January – 4 February.  Reviewed by Claire Roderick

The Bunker’s inaugural season closes with the world premiere of Fiona Doyle’s Abigail.

The play opens with a couple verbally sparring on the one year anniversary of their relationship, then flashes back to the couple on the day they first met in a snowy Berlin. The fractured timeline interweaves the beginning of their relationship – full of sweet moments, but with hints of the emotional damage of both characters – with the wreckage that remains after a year together.

The woman (Tia Bannon) is much younger than the Man (Mark Rose), and the spare script gives subtle hints about her motivation and attraction to a middle-aged man. Her relationship with her recently dead father appears to have been abusive, but nothing is clarified, leaving the audience to draw their own conclusions. The audience are also trusted to realise the woman’s reasons for travelling to Berlin from throwaway lines. Likewise, the man is always apologising for things he has done, which are never disclosed. As their anniversary night draws to an end, it becomes clear where the power lies in this relationship, but while there is some powerful acting from Bannon as she goes into full psycho mode, this doesn’t satisfy, as too many questions are left unanswered.

I’m all for the audience following a trail of breadcrumbs, and for most of the play this works, but the final violent confrontation on their anniversary answered some questions about the woman, and none about the man. This disappointment is quickly dissipated by a masterfully judged final scene reminding the audience of the hope and love that had first blossomed between the couple.

Tia Bannon gives a wonderful portrayal of a damaged woman, with nuanced looks and body language saying much more than the script at times. Mark Rose has a tougher job in his role. He is funny and exasperating trotting out facts about art and archaeology, and his moments of apology are handled deftly, but the script just doesn’t give him enough to work with.

To match the piecemeal, sparse script, Max Dorey’s set of packing cases and boxes is ideal. The cast scramble up stepped boxes, move a few boxes, and they are in a graveyard or on top of a cliff. Director Joshua McTaggart has produced an atmospheric and interesting piece of theatre, but the characters need a little more fleshing out to make this truly satisfying and memorable.

Theatre N16 11 – 14 January.  Reviewed by Claire Roderick

There seem to be zombies everywhere you turn nowadays, so creating a new comedy with fresh ideas is an ambitious project. Thick & Thin Theatre’s Brains takes a corporate look at a zombie epidemic, with the characters all working for MediBite Inc. in the not too distant future, where the sale of drugs combatting the disease means business is booming. When a possible cure is discovered, tests are rushed through, but nobody has told the new intern that tweeting this news is a bad idea…

Brains is packed full of stereotypes, but in a 45-minute production with no time to establish character, that is perfectly understandable. There’s the coke snorting boss, Harry – a foul mouthed bully who doesn’t actually have a clue what he’s doing, who saves his finest insults for accountant Jeff, ball-busting CEO Ursula, science nerd Stuart, new salesman Rosie and Harry’s niece Tina – a reluctant and stroppy intern.

Jack Dent is wince -inducing (in a good way!) as the hapless Jeff – think David Brent without the confidence. Aidan Parsons as Aidan and Stephanie Overington as Ursula throw themselves into their vile characters with abandon, and Parsons manages to make you almost feel sorry for Aidan as events slip out of control.

New girl Rosie causes excitement and Jeff and Stuart attempt to woo her with spectacularly inept techniques before deciding that she must be a lesbian – all very Big Bang Theory UK, but still some funny lines. The corporate shenanigans about supply and demand, and the morality of drug companies is slightly less effective, beginning like a budget version of Utopia, but running out of steam and coming to a dead end – literally. Cameron Szerdy’s script has some cracking jokes, but Brains could do with a longer running time and plot development to produce a truly satisfying play.

Peacock Theatre 9 – 10 January.  Reviewed by Claire Roderick

The 40th London International Mime Festival opened with a bang and lots of laughs thanks to Gandini Juggling. Expanding their company to 22 with guest artists, this special edition of Smashed is a wonderfully oddball creation, full of apples, energy and distinctly European humour.

The soundtrack is a joy, full of familiar tunes that bring a smile to your face – calypso, country and western and opera – it’s all in here.

An opening parade around a row of wooden chairs is simple and sweet, with the company providing laughs just by opening their mouths as their apples rise and fall. I know this sounds like we must have been drunk, but the effect was wonderful, allowing each performer to introduce their “character”. The synchronicity and timing of the jugglers is astounding – one number where they are sitting in a row with apples rising and falling in perfect harmony to the rhythm of a jaunty 30s tune looked just like an early cartoon music sequence.

There is no distinct storyline in the show, the publicity describes it as a series of nostalgic scenes exploring conflict, lost love and quaint afternoon tea. The inventive sequences range from sweet courtship, with one poor unrequited lover being constantly rejected as men peacock around the stage, to downright misogyny (with a wink and glint in the eye), with the two female performers crawling along the floor as the men bounce apples and touch their bodies to the strains of “Stand By Your Man”, and further female performers being manhandled into position and perked up before a brilliantly deadpan and beautiful piece of armography with apples whilst lip-synching Charles Aznavour’s “What makes a man a man?” There is instant payback though, with men lining up for kinky juggling punishment at the hands of the women (and thanking them for it!), and a hysterically pervy seduction scene resulting in apples being “laid” in the men’s laps. The battle of the sexes with apples as weapons – it’s all quite biblical.

Inspired by Pina Bausch, the choreography is varied and innovative, with nods to ballet, street dance and Broadway. Whether moving in organised interweaving lines and circles, or forming frantic groups of shoving and grabbing arms – and keeping those apples flying – the performers skill is simply astounding. The beauty of a pair of dancers juggling slowly and smoothly as they hug and twirl must be seen to be believed.

The performers aren’t infallible, but whenever an apple is dropped, a wicked cackle emerges from the company, bringing the house down and making you wonder if it was an accident after all. The jeopardy of juggling is explored in a fantastically childlike way, with one performer using a rolled-up newspaper in a variety of ways to distract the jugglers and send apples rolling over the stage. When the time comes for everyone’s party tricks to be shown off – astounding skills on display here – the entire company ends up chanting “Drop! Drop! Drop!” at the last man standing.

Mezzo-soprano Emma Carrington and a string quartet provide a stunning accompaniment to the finale – with mesmeric choreography fracturing into jerky, chaotic movement before harmonising again. The sense of rising anarchy throughout the show comes to a head when the apples are exchanged for crockery. The juggling descends into artful smashing, with shards littering the floor, teapots emptied over people, and carefully choreographed chaos descending on the stage. Just brilliant!

Unfortunately, Gandini Juggling had only two shows in the festival, but if they ever come to a theatre near you, GET A TICKET! This is juggling and theatre at its best.

English Touring Theatre to open UK Tour of Nell Gwynn at The Lowry

Tue 1 – Sat 4 March 2017

English Touring Theatre will open their UK Tour of Jessica Swale’s
Nell Gwynn, starring Laura Pitt-Pulford in the title role, at The Lowry. 
 
The production, directed by Christopher Luscombe begins its tour at the The Lowry in Salford, running from Tue 1- Sat 4 March. It then goes on to tour at multiple UK venues before returning to Shakespeare’s Globe in May 2017.

Jessica Swale’s warm-hearted, bawdy bio-drama (winner of 2016 Olivier Award for Best New Comedy) tells the story of an unlikely heroine, who went from lowly orange seller to win the adoration of the public and the heart of the King.

Jessica Swale is an award-winning playwright and the Artistic Director of Red Handed Theatre Company. Her first play, Blue Stockings was performed at Shakespeare’s Globe in 2012 and is a Drama GCSE set text. Other writing includes, All’s Will that Ends Will, Thomas Tallis, The Playhouse Apprentice, adaptations of Sense and Sensibility, Far from the Madding Crowd, The Secret Garden, Stig of the Dump and a new play, The Mission, about illegal adoptions in the 1920s.

In 2012 she won a BAFTA JJ Screenwriting Bursary and current commissions include the screenplay of Nell Gwynn for Working Title, the Horrible Histories Movie and Love [Sic], a new play for BBC Radio 4.  As director, Swale set up Red Handed Theatre Company in 2006, where her work includes The Belle’s Stratagem, The Busy Body, The Rivals, Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me (Southwark Playhouse), The School for Scandal (Park Theatre) and Palace of the End (Arcola).

Laura Pitt-Pulford plays Nell Gwynn.  Her theatre credits include Flowers for Mrs Harris (Sheffield Crucible), Oliver!, The Sound of Music, Piaf, Hello Dolly! (Curve), The Smallest Show on Earth (UK tour), Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre), The Return of the Soldier (Jermyn Street Theatre), The Light Princess (National Theatre), A Man of No Importance (Salisbury Playhouse), Mack and Mabel and Parade (Southwark Playhouse), title role in Sweet Charity (Belfast MAC), The Little Prince (Lyric Belfast), Guys and Dolls (UK tour) and Copacabana (Watermill Theatre, Newbury).

Christopher Luscombe directs. His directing credits in London include The Shakespeare Revue (RSC and Vaudeville Theatre), Star Quality and The Madness of George III (Apollo Theatre), Home and Beauty (Lyric Hammersmith), Fascinating Aïda – One Last Flutter and The Rocky Horror Show (Harold Pinter Theatre), The Comedy of Errors, The Merry Wives of Windsor (Shakespeare’s Globe), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre), Enjoy (Gielgud Theatre), Alphabetical Order (Hampstead Theatre), When We Are Married (Garrick Theatre), Travels With My Aunt (Menier Chocolate Factory) and Spamalot (Playhouse Theatre). His RSC productions of Love’s Labour’s Lost and Much Ado About Nothing, seen last year in Stratford-upon-Avon, have been screened in cinemas worldwide and released on DVD. They transfer to Chichester later this year, and then to the Theatre Royal, Haymarket for Christmas.

The Shakespeare’s Globe Production of Nell Gwynn is presented by English Touring Theatre in association with Nica Burns, Eleanor Lloyd Productions and Paula Marie Black.

Listings Info
Nell Gwynn
The Lowry
Wed 1 – Sat 4 March 2017
8pm, Thu & Sat 2:30pm
Tickets: £24.50 – £30.50 (Including booking fees)
Box office: 0843 208 6000

Yorkshire’s number one family pantomime, PETER PAN, (staged by Qdos Entertainment, the world’s largest pantomime producer) opened in December to packed houses and glowing reviews, and will run until Sunday 29 January at the Alhambra Theatre in Bradford.

This year’s pantomime is led by an array of comedy, television and musical theatre stars – Billy Pearce, Darren Day, Charlie Hardwick, Jon Lee. They are joined by Lucy Evans as Tinker Bell; Marina Lawrence-Mahrra as Tiger Lily; and Rosie O’Hare as Wendy who is from Huddersfield. Four local boys, William Campbell (from Cullingworth), Will Collier (from Rothwell), Theo Francis (from Embsay) and Leo McDonnell (from Horsforth) also joined the cast in the roles of Michael and John Darling following open auditions held at the Alhambra Theatre last autumn.

In order to deliver “the Alhambra’s spectacular panto” (Telegraph & Argus), which is “packed with some genuine laugh out loud moments” (Yorkshire Post), there is an army of backstage people, production crew and venue staff who work tirelessly during rehearsals and every performance to bring this magical show to life.

The annual Alhambra Theatre pantomime brings together the work of over 40 technical and production staff, 20 performers and 23 local children as The Sunbeams. Plus there are up to an additional 160 venue staff, including bars & catering, box office, cleaning, front of house and stage-door teams, who work to ensure the venue is ready to open its doors to the public during the run of pantomime.

Here’s a peek behind the scenes into what audiences might not know, and probably don’t see:

• a total of 5 wagons transported the set, effects, lighting and sound equipment to the Alhambra

• staff worked approximately 901 hours from the get in to the first performance

• it took 2 separate sets of backstage crew working in 48 hour shifts to get the previous show out of the Alhambra Theatre; and then another 2 sets of staff worked another 48 hours to build the set and light the pantomime before the cast started to rehearse on stage

• there were 120 sheets of special flooring put down on the Alhambra stage and approximately 720 screws used to hold it in place

• it takes 21 members of backstage crew to run each performance (12 venue staff and 9 Qdos staff)

• there are 307 lighting cues executed during the show, which is a total of 22,411 for the run; and 158 follow spot cues per show (a total of 11,534 for the run)

• approximately 2,700 special 3D glasses are washed each day; and on average 5 people per week return their real spectacles instead of their 3D glasses at the end of the show!

• approximately 22,000 ice creams, 27,000 hot drinks; 6,400 pints of beer, 3,200 glasses of wine and 15,400 glasses of pop are sold during the run of pantomime

• over 2,500 diners are served in Restaurant 1914 during the run of pantomime

• there are 11 full size Christmas trees erected in the venue in December; the tallest one is 14 feet high and has over 500 lights on it

• Billy will have greeted his audiences with “ahoy there mateys” over 1,100 times; Peter Pan could have flown to Leeds and back; and Mr Crocodile will have roared over 1,200 times during the pantomime run!

• and at the end of the run, it will take 16 crew around 12 hours to pack away the show for another year…

Ground-breaking special effects once again take centre stage in this year’s production. Over the past five years, audiences at the Alhambra Theatre pantomime have been treated to an array of show-stopping effects, created by The Twins FX. This year is no exception as real life twins, Gary and Paul HardyBrown, have created the biggest crocodile in panto-land!

Also, an exciting 3D sequence takes audiences deep into the ocean on a magical underwater adventure. It was at the Alhambra Theatre ten years ago that pantomime producers, Qdos Entertainment, first featured ground-breaking 3D as part of their shows. Since then the wizardry behind 3D graphics has been made even more sophisticated to ensure audiences are on the edge of their seats!

“Shiver me timbers – Billy and the gang triumph at Neverland” Telegraph & Argus “This version of Peter Pan … is also packed with some genuine laugh out loud moments…” Yorkshire Post “Veteran performer Billy Pearce continues to deliver in a pantomime with stunning 3D effects” The Stage

Peter Pan – Alhambra Theatre, Bradford

Must end Sunday 29 January 2017

Relaxed Performance – Tuesday 17 January 2016 at 7.15pm

*Tickets: £39 – £15.50 (*inclusive of booking fees)

Call the Box Office on 01274 432000 or visit bradford-theatres.co.uk

INTERNATIONAL TRIUMPH BLOOD BROTHERS

 

TO EMBARK ON 30^th ANNIVERSARY UK TOUR

LYN PAUL TO REPRISE ROLE AS THE

‘DEFINITIVE MRS JOHNSTONE’

 

WATCH: BLOOD BROTHERS

2017 marks 30 years since Bill Kenwright’s production of the international smash hit musical Blood Brothers first toured the UK. In celebration, the iconic musical will visit theatres across the country next year, opening on Tuesday 17 January at the New Victoria Theatre in Woking.

Hailed as one of the best musicals of all time, Blood Brothers, written by award-winning playwright Willy Russell has triumphed across the globe. Scooping up no fewer than four awards for best musical in London and seven Tony Award nominations on Broadway, Blood Brothers is simply unmissable and unbeatable.

This epic tale of Liverpool life started as a play, performed at a Liverpool comprehensive school in 1981 before opening at the Liverpool Empire in 1983, completing sell out seasons in the US, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Japan. Blood Brothers also ran in London’s West End for 24 years, exceeding 10,000 performances, one of only three musicals ever to achieve that milestone.

No stranger to Blood Brothers, ‘The definitive Mrs Johnstone’ (Manchester Evening News) Lyn Paul returns to the iconic role, one she first played in 1997. Lyn played Mrs Johnstone in the final West End performances at the Phoenix Theatre in 2012. She has also starred in the UK tour of Cabaret in 2013 as Fraulein Schneider, in Boy George’s musical Taboo and in Footloose – the Musical.

Lyn rose to fame in the early 1970s as a member of the New Seekers. She was the featured vocalist on their 1972 Eurovision Song Contest entry, ‘Beg, Steal or Borrow’, in which they came second and lead vocalist on the 1974 number-one hit ‘You Won’t Find Another Fool Like Me’. Among the group’s other works, they recorded the song ‘I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing’, adapted from an advertising jingle for Coca-Cola, which sold over 20 million copies and still remains one of the 100 best-selling singles in the UK.

The  cast  for Blood  Brothers includes  Sarah  Jane  Buckley,  Dean  Chisnall,  Mark Hutchinson, Sean Jones,  Adam  Search, Danielle Corlass, Tim Churchill, Graham Martin, Laura Harrison, Alison Crawford, Graeme Kinniburgh, Henry Regan and Josh Capper.

 

Blood Brothers tells the captivating and moving story of twin boys separated at birth, only to be reunited by a twist of fate and a mother’s haunting secret. The memorable score includes A Bright New Day, Marilyn Monroe and the emotionally charged hit Tell Me It’s Not True.

When Mrs Johnstone, a young mother, is deserted by her husband and left to her own devices to provide for seven hungry children she takes a job as a housekeeper in order to make ends meet.

It is not long before her brittle world crashes around her when she discovers herself to be pregnant yet again – this time with twins! In a moment of weakness and desperation, she enters a secret pact with her employer which leads inexorably to the show’s shattering climax. A sensational cast, incredible show stopping music, remarkable staging and five star performances make Blood Brothers an enthralling night of entertainment.

Willy Russell is undeniably one of this country’s leading contemporary dramatists. His countless credits include Educating Rita and Shirley Valentine. Educating Rita, originally commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company, enjoyed a two year run in the West End and was made into a movie starring Michael Caine and Julie Walters. Shirley Valentine also made the move from stage to screen in an enormously popular film starring Pauline Collins and Tom Conti.

WEBSITE | TWITTER | FACEBOOK

Bill Kenwright presents

BLOOD BROTHERS

By Willy Russell

Directed by Bob Tomson and Bill Kenwright

Designed by Andy Walmsley                                       Sound Designed By Dan Samson

Musical Direction by Kelvin Towse                            Lighting Designed by Nick Richings

 

BLOOD BROTHERS – 2017 TOUR DATES

 

Tuesday 17 – Saturday 21 January                                                            Box Office:  0844 871 7645

Woking, New Victoria Theatre                                                                   Website: www.atgtickets.com/woking

 

***Monday 23 January – Saturday 4 February                                   Box Office: 0114 249 6000

Sheffield Theatres, Lyceum Theatre                                                        Website: www.sheffieldtheatres.co.uk

Monday 6 – Saturday 11 February                                                            Box Office: 01202 280000

Poole, Lighthouse                                                                                            Website: www.lighthousepoole.co.uk

Monday 13 – Saturday 18 February                                                          Box Office: 0844 871 3021

Southport Theatre                                                                                          Website: www.atgtickets.com/southport

Monday 20 – Saturday 26 February                                                          Box Office: 01793 524 481

Swindon, Wyvern Theatre                                                                           Website: www.swindontheatres.co.uk

Monday 27 February – Saturday 4 March                                              Box Office: 01753 853 888

Windsor, Theatre Royal                                                                 Website: www.theatreroyalwindsor.co.uk

Monday 6 – Saturday 11 March                                                 Box Office: 024 7655 3055

Coventry, Belgrade Theatre                                                                        Website: www.belgrade.co.uk

Monday 13 – Saturday 18 March                                                               Box Office: 08448 112121

Newcastle, Theatre Royal                                                                            Website: www.theatreroyal.co.uk

Monday 20 – Saturday 25 March                                                               Box Office:  01224 641122

Aberdeen, His Majesty’s Theatre                                                             Website: www.aberdeenperformingarts.com

**Tuesday 28 March – Saturday 8 April                                  Box Office: 00353 1 677 7999

Dublin, Bord Gáis Energy Theatre                                                             Website: www.bordgaisenergytheatre.ie

 

Monday 10 – Saturday 22 April                                                   Box Office: 0844 871 3012

Bristol Hippodrome                                                                                         Website: www.atgtickets.com/bristol

**Mrs Johnstone to be played by Rebecca Storm

*** Brenda to be played by Joanne McShane

Comedian Miles Jupp describes his new show, Songs of Freedom, as “a rant about me, you, domestic imprisonment, fatherhood, having to have opinions, hot drinks, the government, bad balance, housing, ill health, the ageing process, navigation and other people’s pants”. That’s a very long list of thing to be fretting about, I say when we meet for a coffee to talk about taking the show on tour. “Oh, I’m not a fretter,” he replies thoughtfully. “More a despairer.”

But his fans shouldn’t despair, nor indeed fret; in conversation Miles is warm and witty, and in no way negative about his situation in life. It’s just that the modern world can – in his word – “discombobulate” him.

Take a recent incident at the house he shares with his wife, Rachel, and their five children in the Welsh borders. “I can get angry very, very quickly about inanimate objects, particularly if they don’t do what I want them to do,” says Miles. “We’ve just had a new boiler put in and I can’t operate it. I’ve read the instructions but it’s got this enormous control panel and I don’t understand it, or for that matter why it makes the radiators come on at 3am. The man who installed it has to come back and talk us through it.

“And now we have bought a smart TV and, after not having had a television for eight years, it’s all slightly baffling. It’s the equivalent of going on a yoga retreat and in the intervening time the industrial revolution has happened. ‘What’s going on? I don’t know how to use a loom…’

“Of course our seven-year-old understands how the TV works perfectly, but I can’t very well go and wake him up at midnight and say, ‘We want to watch Peaky Blinders, come and find it for us…’” In case you’re thinking that Miles is a man born out of his time, he goes on to wax lyrical about the reversing camera in the family car. “It’s just brilliant,” he says. “It’s just that I am slightly out of kilter with the modern world and I do come at things from a different angle sometimes.”

You will by now have guessed that Miles is a man who can have a joke at his own expense, and that his wit is the kind that demands there should be a typeface called “ironic” for conversations such as this. When I ask if the new show contains any material about his young family, he responds: “Why talk about something as wonderful as my children when I could be talking about something completely pointless? The show can be summed up as: ‘I don’t tweet, but I write down things that ought to be a tweet, and here they are’.” In actuality it’s a very funny, wry take on life.

Many of Miles’ fans will be keen listeners to Radio 4’s topical comedy show ‘The News Quiz’, which he took over as host of last year, and which he is enjoying enormously. “I love working as part of a team, and I hope people listening get some sense of me as a person, rather than just some bloke capable of reading stuff out loud.”

Miles’ father was a minister in the United Reform Church and he himself studied Divinity at Edinburgh University. While still a student there he started acting and, for those of a certain age, he will forever be Archie the Inventor in CBeebies’ Balamory. “I often get people come up to me and start talking about it,” he says. “For me it was a long time ago, but for them it’s a defining part of their childhood.”

Apart from ‘The News Quiz’, people know Miles from television as fusspot Nigel in the ecclesiastical comedy ‘Rev’, as Captain Fanshaw in soldiering comedy Gary Tank Commander, asJohn Duggan in ‘The Thick of It’ and from his self-penned ‘In and Out of the Kitchen’, in which he played minor celebrity chef Damian Trench. Miles says ‘In and Out’ of the Kitchen won’t return to the BBC, but he is currently writing Damian’s memoir, due for publication later this year.

He also appeared as the Valet of Greystoke in The Legend of Tarzan, which was released earlier this year in July, and is Blackberry in an upcoming new adaptation of Richard Adams’ Watership Down for the BBC, part of a star-studded cast that includes Sir Ben Kingsley, Gemma Arterton and John Boyega from Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

He usually gets to play posh and/or clever chappie roles, but says he would really love to be cast as a baddie. I suggest that’s because, as an unfailingly polite man, he would love to play against type, and he agrees. “You would get to cut loose and say bad things,” Miles says. “You can be unpleasant without having to apologise for it.”

In the meantime, audiences at his live shows will be able to enjoy the real version of Miles having a rant at modern life’s multiple irritations – politely, of course, without a hint of unpleasantness but with a lot of laughs.

Miles Jupp: Songs of Freedom can be seen at City Varieties Music Hall in Leeds on Thursday 7th February 2017

For more information visit cityvarieties.co.uk