Beano’s Derek The Sheep On Stage

By John Freeman on August 7, 2011

While there have been a good few British comics characters that have made it onto the cinema and television screen, from the infamous Sylvester Stallone Judge Dredd to the delightfully unique BBC TV version of Jane, there have been very few that have made it onto the theatre stage. It is good therefore to report that Gary Northfield’s Beano character Derek The Sheep will be appearing at Merton’s Colour House Theatre over the course of the next week.

As part of the south London Merton Abbey Mills complex’s AbbeyFest 2011, Derek will be appearing in The Quest For The Googly Glasses, written by Gary Northfield and performed by the Legend Theatre Company. Already previewed on Sunday 24 July at the New Cross Turn Left small press event, the show will take run from Tuesday 9 to Friday 12 August with a final show on Saturday 13 August. All shows take place at 2pm with adult tickets priced at £7 and concessions at £5.

As for other British comics characters that have appeared on the theatre stage we know of two different versions of 2000AD’s Halo Jones from last century plus the somewhat bizarre sounding Dan Dare The Musical in 2003, while 2009 brought us The Sunday Post’s matriarch in The Maw Broon Monologues and Kate Brown’s The Spider Moon from The DFC. If you know of any others that we may have missed then leave us a comment.

• There are more details about the play on Gary Northfield’s blog, Stupid Monsters.

• There are more details including booking information for Derek The Sheep in The Quest For The Googly Eyes at the AbbeyFest 2011 website.

John Freeman

The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.

He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.