A stage version of the ITV hit comedy Benidorm is to première in Newcastle. Benidorm Live will open at the city's Theatre Royal from 7 to 15 September 2018 prior to a national tour.
It will be written by the author of the TV series, Derren Litten, and produced for the stage by Michael Harrison and David Ian.
“I’ve loved the ten years of writing my TV show Benidorm,” said Litten, “but despite a successful writing career I’m first and foremost a performer so I've always been secretly frustrated I couldn't hear the audience’s laughter. This national tour of Benidorm Live will not only make a long-lasting dream come true but will also mean I no longer have to stand in strangers’ gardens listening at their windows at 9 o’clock on cold winter evenings.”
Season 10 is due to broadcast in early 2018.
After leaving school in Hull in the late 1980s, Litten spent a year working as a professional magician while auditioning for drama schools. He won a place on the three-year acting course at the Central School of Speech and Drama where he met Catherine Tate who was a student there at the same time.
After ten years of working as an actor, he was asked by Tate to write for her newly commissioned TV sketch show, The Catherine Tate Show and he went on to appear in many of the sketches. After co-writing and appearing in two series and a Christmas Special, he was given a script commission by comedy producer Geoffrey Perkins.
“Just write anything you want as long as it’s funny,” Perkins told him. That show was the BAFTA nominated hit comedy Benidorm.
Full casting and tour dates will be announced later.