Ricky Tomlinson making sitcom about big showbiz secrets
Actor Ricky Tomlinson and his pal, singer Asa Murphy, are creating a new comedy show about some of the secrets the biggest names in showbiz have, which could later turn into a stage musical.
Ricky Tomlinson is writing a new sitcom based on secrets about the biggest names in showbiz.
The 86-year-old actor and his friend, singer Asa Murphy, have joined forces to create the new comedy show, and it could even become a stage musical.
Asa told The Sun newspaper's TVBiz column: "We’ve got plans. Ricky’s working on a script for a new comedy, and we’ve also got plans of doing a musical about Ricky’s life as well.”
Ricky - who played couch potato Jim Royle in the much-loved BBC sitcom The Royle Family - added: "All I can tell you is I love showbusiness, and I know stories about some of the biggest names in showbusiness.
"So, it’s about some of them big names, that’s all I can say. It’s about some of them big names."
One of those people could be the late comedian, Eddie Flanagan.
Ricky said: "Eddie Flanagan, I can tell about because Eddie’s dead now. Eddie was a wonderful comic.
"He was in digs, and wherever the digs were, she was very, very mean with the food.
"So, what they used to do overnight when they come in, there was a lock on the pantry door.
"So Eddie used to pick the lock, they go in the pantry, get a bit of cheese and a bit of bread and all that and make sandwiches.
"When they left the digs, he left a message.
"And when the woman come in, she took the top off the margarine to make sandwiches, and it had, ‘Flanagan was here!'"
Last month, Ricky reprised his role as Bobby Grant for the one-off Brookside return as part of Hollyoaks' 30th anniversary celebrations.
And the star - who "didn't hesitate" when offered to reprise his alter ego again after 37 years - would be up for a long-term return of the Channel 4 soap - which began in 1982 and ended in 2003.
Ricky told Radio Times magazine: "I would certainly think about it.
"I do other stuff and have got grandchildren now, so I spend a lot of time with them. I've just done my first children's book called Maggie and Jack and the Rusty Key, named after two of my grandkids.
"It would be a big commitment if Brookie came back full-time, but I'd seriously consider it, because it was very good to me and to the city of Liverpool."
