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Greenlit: When Julie Walters Met Willy Russell, BBC2

When Julie Walters Met Willy Russell  w/t (1 x 30′)  –  Julie Walters, one of Britain’s most popular actresses, meets Willy Russell, the Liverpudlian lyricist and playwright, to find out how a 15 year-old dropout from a working class suburb of Liverpool become one of the most successful playwrights in modern British theatre history.

Russell’s screenplay Educating Rita would catapult Julie Walters to international stardom. He has written some of the most insightful and sensitive roles for women actors in modern British theatre history, including Shirley Valentine; Blood Brothers is one of the most successful musicals in West End history. But there is more to Russell’s talents than play-writing. As friend, collaborator, and comedic inquisitor, Julie uncovers Willy’s remarkably diverse creative passions – from an award winning record album, musical scores, novel-writing and most recently, painting.

In this unforgettable Liverpool reunion, Julie and Willy rehearse a John McGrath play on the new Everyman Theatre stage, visit the legendary men’s toilet at the Philharmonic Pub which inspired the play Stags And Hens, encounter eccentric local residents on the terrace house streets where Ringo Starr grew up – and dissect how the notion of ‘working class’ theatre has fundamentally changed since the heyday of Liverpool’s legendary The Everyman Theatre.

Platform: BBC2

Producer: BBC Studios

TX: Autumn 2016

Source: BBC press release

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