It was the play that inspired The Royle Family, and next month, Liverpool’s PurpleCoat Productions bring Willy Russell’s Breezeblock Park to The Lantern Theatre between the 8th and 10th August.
Set amongst the bickering families of a 1970’s Liverpool council estate, the play is said to have inspired the popular classic sitcom, The Royle Family, when it premiered at the Liverpool Everyman in 1975. Back then, it starred a young Pete Poslthwaite and Julie Walters, and went on to be Willy Russell’s first big hit. It propelled him to go on to write such landmarks as Blood Brothers, Shirley Valentine, Stags and Hens and Educating Rita.