Industry newspaper The Stage suggests that comic performer Frank Skinner is to play put-upon movie star Stan Laurel in Tom McGrath's play Laurel and Hardy at the New End, Hampstead, next year. Mark Adly has been suggested as potential co-star Oliver Hardy.
Laurel and Hardy were hugely popular figures thanks to their slapstick comedy routines on screen, and Stan Laurel's attempts to preserve his sense of innate dignity under pressure gave an extra depth to the screen relationship between the two men.
It is believed that Laurel and Hardy will take place at the New End early in the new year.