Related Pages: The Work   The Gallery   Interviews

Tell a friend!

These are snippets from Reviews of Paul's London stage début, Billy Liar. If you have subscribed to our Greeny club, you can get the full text of these reviews on the Greeny Billy Liar Reviews page

Cast and Crew

• Writers: Keith Waterhouse & Willis Hall
• Director: Alex Walker
• Designer: Nigel Hook
• Cast:
  • Paul Nicholls (Billy Fisher)
  • Mary Chester (Florence Boothroyd)
  • George Layton (Geoffrey Fisher)
  • Sherrie Hewson (Alice Fisher)
  • Phil Pickard (Arthur Crabtree)
  • Rebecca Callard (Barbara)
  • Liza Hayden (Rita)
  • Rebecca Manley, (Liz)
• Staged at: The King's Head Theatre, London
• Run: 27 May, 1998 - 12 July, 1998

Reviews

Review by James Christopher, The Times - 5 June 1998

APART from the fact that he is from a mouldy corner up North, Billy Fisher is the clone of every American Dreamer since the helium years of the Beach Boys. Stradhoughton to London may not have quite the same ring about it as Miami to LA, but writer Keith Waterhouse and co-adapter Willis Hall turn Billy's dream of running away to write comedy sketches in the West End into a savage piece of semi-detached satire.

Albert Finney made a legendary stage success of Billy in 1960, while Tom Courtenay immortalised him in John Schlesinger's 1963 film. The interest here is whether former EastEnders heart-throb Paul Nicholls can make a similarly convincing mess of Billy's pipe dreams. The answer is that it is mostly done for him by Alex Walker's extremely funny production.

Nicholls's charm unfortunately looks plastic and out of place. In Billy's head, of course, he is always out of place. But there is no sense of despair about his daily self-deceptions. Nicholls does not impede the comedy: he does not have enough charisma to. The true edge to Walker's enjoyable production is supplied by Billy's family, particularly George Layton's apoplectic father, and Billy's warring fiancées, who are worth the ticket alone.

Review by Kate Bassett, Electronic Telegraph - 20 June 1998

LIAR by name, liar by nature. Keith Waterhouse's imaginative teenage hero - stuck in his parents' Northern terrace house in 1960 and dreaming of escaping to become a great writer - is a big fibber and pretender.

However, just because this character's porky pies don't fool all of his family and girlfriends all of the time, that doesn't mean that we want to watch unconvincing acting. The central flaw in this revival of Waterhouse and Willis Hall's classic play is that Paul Nicholls doesn't portray Billy believably.

Perhaps Nicholls (best known as Joe in EastEnders) was suffering from nerves on the night I saw him - he's only 19 and this is his London stage debut. Nevertheless his self-consciousness is discomforting.

That said, something extraordinary happens to Nicholls in his serious concluding scenes. When his true sweetheart Liz (played by Rebecca Manley) comes back after a long time away, their meeting is startlingly tender. And you suddenly see Nicholls's potential - he fully connects emotionally and moves on to a painfully angry face-off with his dad (George Layton).

Related Pages:   The Gallery   |   The Work   |   Interviews