Between them, they have played countless roles, but Lee Evans, Sheila Hancock and Keeley Hawes are pictured here as never seen before.
The trio have been given a makeover in the style of The Only Way Is Essex for a new West End comedy, Barking In Essex, in which they play members of a dysfunctional crime family.
Hawes, 37, who played the rather more conservatively dressed Lady Agnes Holland in BBC1’s Upstairs Downstairs, will don a skintight, bright pink mini-dress with green stilettos for her role as perma-tanned Chrissie Packer.
The farce by the late Clive Exton, the writer of television series Poirot, Jeeves and Wooster and Rosemary & Thyme, will open at the Wyndham’s Theatre in Charing Cross Road in September and also stars Montserrat Lombard and Karl Johnson.
Hawes joked that the role has given her an excuse to watch the ITV reality show The Only Way Is Essex.
“I’m thrilled to be stepping into the incredibly high heels of my character Chrissie,” she said.
“I’m looking forward to working with Sheila, Lee, Montserrat and Karl, and performing at the Wyndham’s, which is such a beautiful theatre. I now even have a great excuse to watch Towie. All in the name of research, obviously…”
Hawes plays the wife of comedian Evans, 49, whose character is the hapless criminal Darnley, just released after seven years in prison.
Hancock, 80, plays the family’s matriarch Emmie, who presides over the family as Darnley tries to spend the £3.5 million fortune he had stashed away before going behind bars.
She said: “I wanted to do this play mainly because I think/hope it is outrageously funny. My part is an awful woman, with no redeeming features. I’ll enjoy that.”
Evans said: “London offers the best theatre in the world. It’s great to be coming back to the West End in a comedy about a ludicrously dysfunctional family getting themselves into all manner of trouble — let’s face it, that’s probably why it’s got me in it.
“The fun is seeing how they get themselves out of the chaos they create. It’s sort of Ab Fab meets The Sopranos.
“I’m really looking forward to working with Sheila, Keeley, Karl and Montse — we’re going to have such a laugh in rehearsals.”
The play, which is being directed by Harry Burton, will premiere at Wyndham’s on September 16, following previews from September 6.
Tickets are available from barkinginessex.co.uk
