MAL EVANS AT THE LANTERN THEATRE

The life of Beatles roadie Mal Evans is recalled in a show returning to the Liverpool stage after it received its premiere in the city.

Beatle Mal, the brainchild of actor and lifelong Beatle fan Nik Wood-Jones, was first showcased at the Cavern Club last summer before he took it to the Edinburgh Fringe.

Now it is on its way back, this time to the Lantern theatre later this month.

Mal Evans was the former telephone engineer who had a front seat view of the Beatles’ meteoric rise from Liverpool moptops to global legends.

He popped up as a confused Channel swimmer in Help!, provided backing vocals for Yellow Submarine, played tambourine on Dear Prudence, and that’s him you can hear counting diligently as the orchestra spirals upwards in A Day in the Life.

But the 6ft 6ins ‘gentle giant’ died in a hail of police bullets at his Los Angeles apartment in January 1976.

Nik says: “In writing this piece, I’ve tried to keep true to the creative spirit of the Beatles, as I have to the character of a man who was clearly a much loved figure in the Beatles’ family and who was always unswervingly loyal to them.”

The Liverpool date is part of a UK and Ireland tour of the show.

The Beatles arrive at Speke Airport

“I’ve made the show much more rounded this year,” the actor/writer says of the 2013 production, “with many more personal stories and insights, from Mick Jagger coming round to cadge food when he was a neighbour of Mal’s in London in 63/64 to Elvis phoning when he was in bath one time!

“Also just how the break up of the Beatles affected him.”

The songs and Sergeant Pepper themed element from last year have also gone, apart from what Nik calls “a catchy ditty called The 5th Beatle where Mal mulls over the various candidates for that coveted title.

“The emphasis is on Mal, the warm and friendly gentle giant of a man.”

Nik, who is from Manchester, is best known for playing English Lake District writer and walker Alfred Wainwright, first appearing as him in the BBC film The Man Who Loved the Lakes and then providing the voice of Wainwright in the popular Wainwright Walks series, also for the BBC.

Beatle Mal is at the Lantern Theatre on September 28 at 7.30pm.