Men Behaving Badly writer not pulling any punches with comedy’s theatre show
Men Behaving Badly creator Simon Nye will not pull any punches with the classic comedy's crude humour as it makes it way to the stage.
Men Behaving Badly creator Simon Nye is refusing to tone down the crude humour as he brings the hit 1990s sitcom to the stage.
Nearly three decades after Gary Strang and Tony Smart last appeared on the box, the bawdy flatmates are back in a new theatre production set on New Year’s Eve in 1999, complete with swearing, sexual innuendo and the return of the infamous “lager mitt”.
Speaking to The Sun newspaper, Simon said: “In a way, Men Behaving Badly is some weird, psychologically odd trip for me to funnel my dormant, lager-crazed idiot through these lovely characters.
“They’re harmless. People are better disposed towards the likes of Gary and Tony, given the current polarisation of male behaviour, which we do touch on in the show.”
The original BBC sitcom - which starred Martin Clunes as Gary and Neil Morrissey as Tony - ran from 1992 to 1998, and regularly attracted more than 13 million viewers at its peak in the mid-1990s.
It followed the duo’s booze-fuelled antics, chaotic relationships and hapless attempts to impress women.
Teasing the play, Simon said: “We have the ghost of future Tony coming back and talking about that - how sort of, actually, their behaviour was quite benign compared with the way it can be.
“I hope it’s obvious that your average man isn’t a predatory nightmare. And I think this show reminds us if there’s a problem, it’s with immaturity rather than evil or misogyny.”
While the stage version does not feature Clunes or Morrissey, the characters remain largely unchanged.
Within moments of the curtain rising, Gary is making an explicit joke about Tony’s sore tooth - signalling that the tone has not softened with age.
Simon said: “It’s not a Disney-fied version of looking at being a lad. We do talk about [self-pleasure], and we talk about men - in this case, Gary and Tony - not being sensitive in any way, really, to the way women are.”
Addressing suggestions that comedy is now more restricted, Simon said: “People say we can’t say anything these days because everybody’s sensitive, but I think the opposite is true.
“If you look at your average comedy this decade, it’s bold compared to what we did back then. I think things such as death, sexuality and ageing are far more open to being used in the comedy world than they were 25 years ago.”
He also revealed his wife insisted on reading the script before rehearsals began.
He said: “For the first time ever, my wife insisted on reading the script. I don’t know if she was concerned I wouldn’t have realised the world has moved on in the last 25 years.
“But she said she enjoyed it, which, I hope, was the truth. I’m not ignoring all the big themes today, like [adult videos] and toxic misogyny, but it’s a celebration of the innocence of the Nineties and men just being a bit stupid.”
The Men Behaving Badly stage show is currently playing at The Barn Theatre in Cirencester until 7 March 2026.
