MEET TOM, BARBARA, MARGO AND JERRY
AS THE ICONIC BRITISH COMEDY RECEIVES WORLD PREMIERE STAGE PRODUCTION, TOURING THE UK FROM 7 OCTOBER 2021
RUFUS HOUND AS ‘TOM GOOD’
PREEYA KALIDAS AS ‘MARGO LEADBETTER’
DOMINIC ROWAN AS ‘JERRY LEADBETTER’
SALLY TATUM AS ‘BARBARA GOOD’
Full casting is announced today for the brand new stage adaptation of beloved British comedy THE GOOD LIFE which tours the UK this Autumn.
The acclaimed cast will include actress and presenter Preeya Kalidas as ‘Margo Leadbetter’, Dominic Rowan as ‘Jerry Leadbetter’, and Sally Tatum as ‘Barbara Good’, joining the previously announced actor and comedian Rufus Hound as ‘Tom Good’. Also featured will be Nigel Betts and Tessa Churchard.
The new comedy by Jeremy Sams, is based on the classic television series by John Esmonde and Bob Larbey which entertained countless millions in the 1970s. Directed by Jeremy Sams, this world premiere production will be the first time that the iconic characters of suburban neighbours the Goods and the Leadbetters will be seen on stage.
THE GOOD LIFE will open at Theatre Royal Bath on 7 October 2021, before dates at Cheltenham Everyman, Salford Lowry, Oxford Playhouse, Cambridge Arts Theatre, Malvern Theatres, Richmond Theatre and Chichester Festival Theatre.
Remember the Goods – Tom and Barbara, suburban eco-warriors? And their next-door neighbours Margo and Jerry Leadbetter, desperately trying to maintain the Surbiton status quo? Jeremy Sams’s comedy leads the well-loved characters through uproarious adventures, some old, some new and often (even today) hilariously familiar. This new play celebrates a time when, whatever our differences, we still managed to get on with our neighbours.
Beloved BBC comedy THE GOOD LIFE ran on British television from 1975 to 1978 starring Richard Briers, Felicity Kendal, Penelope Keith and Paul Eddington.
Rufus Hound is an award-winning actor, comedian and presenter equally at home with roles on screen including Doctor Who, Cucumber, Hounded and on the stage including One Man Two Guvnors (Theatre Royal Haymarket), What The Butler Saw (Theatre Royal Bath / Leicester Curve), Don Quixote (RSC), Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (Savoy Theatre London), Present Laughter and Neville’s Island (Chichester Festival Theatre) and his award-winning role as Mr Toad in The Wind in the Willows (London Palladium, UK tour and cinema broadcast).
Preeya Kalidas made history as the first British Asian female to play the lead in a musical when she originated the role of Priya in the West End production of Bombay Dreams. Notable screen credits include award-winning feature films Four Lions, Bend it like Beckham and as Amira Shah in BBC’s EastEnders. Preeya played the title role in BAFTA nominated Bollywood Carmen and also starred in Britz, Mistresses, Bodies, Banglatown Banquet and England Expects. Major stage credits include Oxford Street (Royal Court Theatre), Chiaroscuro (Bush Theatre) Olivier Award nominated for Bend it like Beckham the Musical (Phoenix Theatre), Joseph and his amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (The Adelphi), School of Rock (Gillian Lynne Theatre), and most recently Everybody’s talking about Jamie (Apollo Theatre).
Dominic Rowan’s work in theatre includes: A Dream Play, Iphigeneia at Aulis, Mourning Becomes Electra, Three Sisters, Happy Now?, The Talking Cure and Private Lives (National Theatre); The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Merchant of Venice and Talk of the City (RSC); A Voyage Round My Father, Berenice and Lobby Hero (Donmar Warehouse); A Doll’s House (Young Vic), Playhouse Creatures (Old Vic); Way to Heaven and Forty Winks (Royal Court Theatre); The Importance of Being Earnest (Oxford Playhouse); Sexual Perversity in Chicago (Crucible Theatre); The Rivals, Charley’s Aunt and Look Back in Anger (Royal Exchange); A Collier’s Friday Night (Hampstead Theatre); Wit’s End (New End Theatre); Under The Blue Sky, (Duke of York’s); The Misanthrope (Comedy Theatre), As You Like It (Globe Theatre).
Sally Tatum is an actress, comedian and writer who was placed on the BAFTA Rocliffe Forum List for emerging comedy writers. Stage credits include Present Laughter, and Red Light Winter (Theatre Royal Bath), A Day in the Life of Joe Egg (Liverpool Everyman), Gaslight (Old Vic) and As You Like It, Twelfth Night and Solstice (RSC). Television credits include Episodes, Boy Meets Girl, and My Mad Fat Diary.
Nigel Betts’ work in theatre includes: Steel (Sheffield Theatres), Albion (Almeida Theatre), Three Days in the Country (National Theatre), Wonderland (Hampstead Theatre), Pastoral (Soho Theatre), One Man Two Guv’nors, War Horse (National Theatre/West End), Aladdin, (Lyric Hammersmith),The 39 Steps, Up’n’Under, Henry IV, As You Like It (West End). TV includes: Toast, King Gary, Ridley Road, Grantchester, Casualty, All Creatures Great and Small, Father Brown, The A Word, Pennyworth, Harlots, Killing Eve, Trollied, EastEnders, Scarborough, Outlander, Little Boy Blue, Bliss, Bounty Hunters, Death in Paradise, Boy Meets Girl, Vera, Class, The Coroner, DCI Banks, New Tricks, You, Me & Them, The Wrong Mans, Doctor Who, Waterloo Road, Doctors, Holby City, Downton Abbey, The Escape Artist, The Starlings, Doc Martin, Moving Wallpaper, The Bill, Trial and Retribution, The Catherine Tate Show, Coronation Street, The Street, Emmerdale, Doctors, Grange Hill, Midsomer Murders, Silent Witness, Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps, Sharpe’s Mission, Courtroom, Grease Monkeys, Inspector Lynley Mysteries, A Touch of Frost, Final Demand, Paradise Reclaimed, and As Time Goes By.
Tessa Churchard’s theatre credits include The 39 Steps (Criterion Theatre, West End), As You Desire Me (Playhouse Theatre, West End) Noises Off (Piccadilly Theatre, West End), Family Business, Brighton Beach Memoirs and Blithe Spirit (Watford Palace Theatre), Lady Of Leisure, Still Life/ The Astonished Heart, Point Of Death (Liverpool Playhouse), Gaillileo’s Daughter, Man And Superman, Don Juan (Peter Hall Company, Bath Theatre Royal), Remember This (Royal National Theatre), Communicating Doors, Lady Windermere’s Fan, Richard III (Theatre Royal, Northampton), The Diary Of Anne Frank (Basingstoke Haymarket Theatre), Dying In The Street (The Print Room), and The Fabulist (Old Red Lion). For television and film her credits include The Coroner (BBC), EastEnders (BBC), Call The Midwife (BBC), Casualty (BBC), Dixi (CBBC), Doctors (BBC), The Grain Chest (CK Productions), Family Affairs (Talkback Thames), Harringham Harker (BBC), Jeeves And Wooster (ITV) and The Bill (Talkback Thames).
Jeremy Sams‘s directing credits include the National Theatre’s 2000 West End and Broadway revival of Noises Off, the West End musical Spend, Spend, Spend, the international tour of The Sound of Music and Oklahoma! at Chichester Festival Theatre.
Fiery Angel presents THE GOOD LIFE. Adapted and directed by Jeremy Sams based on the TV series by John Esmonde and Bob Larbey. Set and Costume Design by Michael Taylor, Lighting Design by Mark Henderson, Sound Design by Fergus O’Hare, Composition by Tim Sutton and casting by Ginny Schiller CDG.