British actor Les Dennis has said the stage adaptation of Victoria Wood's Dinnerladies will take audiences back to a pre-social media era.
The 72-year-old will step into the role of the opinionated but well-meaning maintenance man, Stan, in a new stage adaptation of the beloved 90s sitcom.
Set almost entirely in the canteen of HWD Components, a fictional factory in Manchester, the series followed the lives, friendships and workplace dramas of the staff and regulars who gathered there every day.
A return to innocence
Ahead of the tour kicking off in the new year, Dennis told the Press Association: “I love comedies today, but Victoria Wood was a very particular style and very particular of its time. I think it's more than of its time. It's universal.
“We're in an age now of social media and telephones where we are all scrolling. We are all addicted to our phones.
“We're running at such a silly pace that it's nice to go into a theatre and sit there for two hours and just bask in the ordinary and in the funny and in the kind of innocence of the age.
“I think audiences will love being taken back to that era and there won't be a phone on stage in our show. There won't be any talk of TikTok or Instagram in our show.
“Dinnerladies was written well before all that and it's timeless.”
First commission since Wood's death
The play is the first to be commissioned by Wood's estate since her death in 2016 at the age of 62.
He added: “It's about a group of women, northern women, who are getting on with their day, their work, but talking about the mundane and the most hilarious things in their lives.
“That's the great thing about her comedy. I think it will last the the test of time.”
Dennis will reunite with his former Coronation Street co-star and good friend Sue Cleaver who appeared in the sitcom as a recurring character and will take the stage as moody, sarcastic and cynical canteen worker Jean, who was played by Anne Reid in the show.
Ensemble cast
He said he was most looking forward to acting within an ensemble which is made up of “wonderful” women.
Dennis said: “That's the great thing about Dinnerladies. It's an almost all-female cast apart from Tony and and Stan, it's mainly the women that get the lion's share of everything.
“I'm looking forward to it so much.”
The sitcom, created, written and co-produced by Wood, aired on the BBC from 1998 to 2000 and starred Wood, Thelma Barlow, Maxine Peake and Shobna Gulati with Dennis's role portrayed by Duncan Preston.
He said: “I gave him (Preston) a call recently just to let him know I was going to be playing Stan, and he said, 'Enjoy it, and and just remember what a taskmaster Victoria was'.
“If an actor said the word the wrong way round or got the tag the wrong way round, she would be up in arms, so we have the pressure of her watching over us.”
Amy Drake will step into Wood's role as deputy canteen manager Brenda “Bren” Furlong, while Gemma Dobson will play her cynical young employee Twinkle.
Emmerdale actor Jimmy Fairhurst will portray canteen manager Tony Martin, while Waterloo Road actress Rachel Marwood stars as canteen regular Jane.
Other characters include naive canteen worker Anita (Faye Weerasinghe), scatty human resources manager Philippa (Rachel Pickup) and Bren's mother Petula (Josie Brightwell), with Sarah Dearlove, Alex Frost, Matthew Gordon, Angela Heenan and Tyne Pearson also among the cast.
Directed by Sean Foley, and adapted by Beth and Emma Kilcoyne, the production will open at the Churchill Theatre in Bromley on January 22 before a run at the Manchester Opera House and a national tour.
Tickets are available at dinnerladiestheplay.com.
