South Shields Customs House is to revive its production of When the Boat Comes In, which played to packed houses over a ten-day run in August, in March next year, from Wednesday 13 March to Sunday 17, with evening performances at 7:30 and two 2:30 performances on Saturday and Sunday.
“It was so popular,” Ray Spencer, the venue’s Executive Director, told the BTG, “and so many people told us that they wished they had managed to see it, that we had to bring it back.”
It will be followed in September by the next instalment of the story of (anti?) hero Jack Ford; When the Boat Comes In: The Hungry Years will run from Thursday 12 to Saturday 28 September 2019.
“So many people told us after the first performance that they wanted more,” said Peter Mitchell who writes the stage version of the TV series originally scripted by his father, James Mitchell, “and it will be an absolute pleasure to bring the next chapter of the story to The Customs House.
“There’s much more to come from Jack Ford and the gang but you can guarantee one thing—it won’t all be plain sailing. The backdrop to the next drama involves poverty, greed, jealousy and ambition—Jack will have his work cut out.”
The series followed the fortunes of former Sergeant Jack Ford during the inter-war years on Tyneside. Having endured the horrors of war, he yearns for something more and is determined to get what he wants, whatever the cost.
The original TV show ran for four series between 1976 and 1981 and it was always Ray Spencer’s plan to bring as much as possible to the Customs House stage.
“There were originally three seasons in the TV series,” he said when the first production was announced in May, “and this version is based on the first. We do have an option on series two and three so hopefully, if the first play is popular, we’ll be producing them in future!"
The second part will continue where the first left off, but will stand as a story in its own right.
“Many of the themes emerging from the drama resonate as clearly now as they ever did,” added Mitchell, “and everyone involved in the production was thrilled at the reaction.”