Band Of Gold coming to Birmingham

The ground-breaking crime drama captivated over 15 million viewers each week when it aired. And now it will feature on stage with a major UK tour reaching the West Midlands next week, with a run at Birmingham’s The Alexandra from Monday to February 15.

The nail-biting, murderous thriller will features a star-studded cast including Gaynor Faye, (Emmerdale, Playing the Field, Calender Girls), Laurie Brett, (EastEnders, Waterloo Road, Les Miserables), Kieron Richardson, (Hollyoaks, Heatbeat), Shayne Ward, (Coronation Street, Rock Of Ages, X Factor winner) and Sacha Parkinson (Mr Selfridge, The Mill).

Following the unprecedented sell-out success of Fat Friends The Musical, producer Josh Andrews and Kay Mellor have teamed up again for Band of Gold.

The nail-biting thriller tells the story of a group of women – Carol, Rose, Anita and Gina – as they battle to survive whilst working in a notorious red-light district. When one of their colleagues is murdered, they need to find the killer before they strike again.

Mellor is thrilled that the work is being brought to life in the live arena.

“I have been asked many times whether Band of Gold would return, and I’ve always wanted to find a way to breathe life back into the characters we grew to know and love on television,” she says.

“I’m thrilled to see the story move from the small screen to the stage, and I can’t wait to bring the production to Birmingham.”

First aired on ITV in March 1995, Band of Gold starred, amongst others, Geraldine James, Cathy Tyson, Barbara Dickson and Samantha Morton.

Such was its popularity, bookmakers took bets on the identity of the killer before the final episode.

Mellor, a Leeds-born writer, also became well known for Fat Friends, The Syndicate and In The Club while most recently she wrote and created Love, Lies & Records (BBC One, 2017), and wrote and directed Girlfriends (ITV,2018).

Mellor said: “The play is about a woman who has got financial problems and can’t pay a loan shark and she meets a sex worker during her part time job and is led into prostitution. Midway through, there’s a murder and we have to decide what’s happened.”

She looks back with fondness at the show’s remarkable success.

“To get something over 15 million overnight was incredible. Broadchurch gets that over a week or three weeks; we did it in a night.”

But more importantly, she is thrilled that the show touched a nerve.

“I remember telling someone I was going to write something about prostitutes and they said they wouldn’t watch it.

“The next morning after the debut episode, I was staggered because it seemed like the whole country had tuned in.”

Mellor had created something authentic from a world that people don’t know. She had also tapped into an intelligent audience that wanted something with depth and humour.

“The thing is, in three weeks, anyone can fall into that life, particularly today with austerity and Universal Credit. We are seeing a lot of homeless and a woman that is homeless and has kids to feed with a young kid crying will do what she has to do to feed her kid.

“I was fortunate because I got to know a lot of the women when I was doing my research. All they wanted to do was get me to show them as they are, as mothers and daughters and sisters and that’s what I did.”

Mellor receives regular offers to bring back Band of Gold. She’s not interested. TV companies can work with her on new projects, but Band of Gold is off limits.

“Even though TV companies have often asked – on a monthly basis – to bring back Band of Gold, I don’t want to do that. I felt I’d told my televisual story. To be honest, the girls would be in their late 50s and early 60s by now.

“But I liked the idea of it for theatre so I started to compile some scenes and I started polishing it. I wasn’t absolutely sure I’d got something. Then I workshopped it with 5 or 6 in the audience and people loved it. So I thought maybe I was onto something. Then a friend at Leeds Grand Theatre offered me a world premier there.”

She was nervous and didn’t want to sully what had gone before, but the show was a hit. “The best feeling in the world is when an audience connects with a show or a production. Those words were just floating inside my head but I got the stories down and seeing enjoy them is incredible.”