Footballers' Wives returning as a musical stage show

21 October 2019, 10:20

Footballers Wives is coming to the stage. Picture: PA/ITV

A musical version of the much-loved noughties drama is in the works

Footballers' Wives is returning as a musical, its show creator has confirmed.

The hit TV series, which followed the lives of wives and girlfriends of footballers and aired between 2002 and 2006, will be adapted for stage for the first time ever.

Maureen Chadwick, one of Footballers' Wives original creators, has confirmed that the musical is currently being written - and will be based on the first series of the show, which followed Tanya Turner and her marriage to footballer Jason Turner.

Footballers Wives is being adapted for stage. Picture: ITV

However, it is unlikely that any of the original cast will be returning.

Producer Liz Lake told Radio Times magazine that, while there are currently no plans to bring the series back to TV, she isn't ruling it out for the future.

She said: "If there's an appetite for it, and enough people want it, it would be worth having that conversation.

"Whatever job I do, I get people telling me they loved Footballers' Wives. It was an escape and a bit of refreshing camp, but it was still really bold storytelling.

"I think we'd prefer to have an update than a reboot, a revival moving it forward.

"It's more than just nostalgia, it's about seeing what life is like now."

The last episode aired in 2006. Picture: PA

And Zoe Lucker, who played Tanya, added: "The thing that would worry me is, what if it wasn't as good?

"I always panic about that. The fact that people still talk about it the way they do, I would hate for any of us to go back and for any of us to be disappointed and it would be such a shame."

The full interview is in Radio Times magazine - out now.

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