BESTSELLING author and scriptwriter John O’Farrell, whose credits include Spitting Image and Have I Got News for You, is currently working in a new musical.
This week he took time out to talk to the Irish Post...
What are you up to at the moment?
We are actually casting for Something Rotten!, which was the first musical I worked on, and is coming to Manchester in June 2026, starring Jason Manford.
It’s a musical set in Shakespeare’s London about two writers who are struggling to get a gig because Shakespeare has got it all sewn up. So, they go and see Nostradamus, who foresees the musical.
They put on the first musical in Tudor England, with the Puritans trying to stop them and Shakespeare getting jealous.
It ran on Broadway for two years and toured the States. But this is the first run that it will have in the UK.
We hope to get it into the West End after that. Something Rotten! is also going to be in Japanese, so that will be bizarre.
Introducing Shakespeare to different audiences is a worthwhile project?
Yes, well, the second song in the musical is called God, I Hate Shakespeare, so audiences don’t have to love Shakespeare.
But if you know a few things or recognise a few quotes, that’s a bonus.
This is also a love letter to musicals. It’s a very funny, feel-good show; a proper knock-out musical.
You were one of the lead writers on Spitting Image — what was that like?
I was there in the late 80s, early 90s. So, I was there when Thatcher was Prime Minister.
And then when she went and Major came in, we needed to find a way to portray the new PM.
I didn’t think about it at the time, but I was only 28 and we were writing these things that were watched by 10 million people.
A lot of politicians were very concerned about how they came across.
Who was your favourite character?
I am very proud of John Major.
It was me who suggested making him permanently grey, and then when we did the thing with him just sitting there with Norma, eating the peas and being really sort of stilted and awkward and provincial, that just really struck a chord.
On a recent episode of The Crown they cut to John and Norma Major at home, and she was serving him a big portion of peas, and I just thought: “Yeah, it still lives — our stupid joke still lives.”
Dennis Skinner would jump up in the House of Commons and say, “Had your peas yet, John?”
When you were approached to write the stage version of the film Mrs Doubtfire, did you have any reservations?
We had been offered another Fox movie before that, which we did turn down because we didn’t think it particularly lent itself to be a musical.
So, when they came back and said, “So what about Mrs Doubtfire?” we thought, well, that does lend itself to be a musical because the stakes are emotional and high.
John O'Farrell wrote the stage adaptation of Mrs DoubtfireThere are plans to take the tour to Ireland, aren’t there?
Yes, it’s coming to Dublin. I would love it to go to Cork, but for this run it has just got the one theatre.
I think it will go down well.
How did the project, Just For One Day – The Live Aid Musical, come about? What was it like working with Bob Geldof?
That came out of the same producers as Doubtfire.
Jamie Wilson had the idea of Live Aid as a musical.
I immediately grabbed it with both hands because I thought, what a canon of music to work with and what an amazing story.
It’s complex, really, with issues about causes of famine, lots to talk about, but also fantastic songs and the story of a huge struggle of one man against the world to make this thing happen.
So, I thought that might work in a musical genre.
So off I go down to Bob’s house in Kent, and I suddenly discover I am supposed to be pitching this thing to him — I thought I was just meeting him.
He was like: “No, no, no — that’s shite!”
I started with his childhood in Ireland and all these priests and nuns walking on to the stage singing: “Every breath you take, we’ll be watching you.”
I thought it would be a good use of that song to have the Catholic Church oppressing this boy and then him flipping it and saying, “You know what, one day I am going to be Saint Bob and you priests will all be a disgrace,” and then the stained-glass windows were going to change to Bob Geldof and it was all going to turn to a rock-and-roll version of the same song — and he hated it. I worked in consultation with Bob all the way.
He’s a man who’s not shy about giving his opinions.
Back in the 1980s, which bands did you follow?
There is a character in Just For One Day who is like, “Thatcher should be sending more aid,” and is into more alternative music.
That is basically me in 1985: I was into The Smiths, all the stuff on the small labels, and I used to go to smaller gigs.
I wasn’t into stadium rock. I was a Bowie fan, I was a Beatles fan, so this character, over the course of the story, gets into it and realises, you know, that it’s good.
When the Band Aid single came out the following Christmas again, I had a copy then — I didn’t have one the first time around.
What advice would you give to any aspiring writers?
I’ve written a book about that which I haven’t published yet — it’ll be out in 2027. How you start, it sounds really cliché, is by putting words down on a page and just knowing what feels right.
There’s inspiration, of course. So you take a good moment or a good phrase or a good paragraph and then you keep reworking that.
So, when you get to writing something bigger, like a novel or a play or a film, then you do need to hit certain points.
People think, “Oh, I could never write a novel.”
No, you could write a bit of a novel on Sunday morning and you could write a bit more on Monday, and that journey of a hundred miles starts with a couple of steps.
Eventually you’ll get better and better, and the stuff will get better and better.
Tell me about your Irish roots…
Well, my dad is from Galway, and we were brought up to be Irish — cheer for Dana, cheer for Ireland in the World Cup. I’ve always gone back there a lot. I’ve got my Claddagh ring, Irish passport.
I go every year. I remember going back with my dad and he met the guy who had been his childhood neighbour.
My dad immigrated in his teens to Manchester, but was always very proud to be Irish.
When we go back, we head for south-west Cork on holiday a lot.
Actually, this year we just went to the Wicklow Mountains, which I had never been to and which I loved, and spent some time in Dún Laoghaire, which is where Bob Geldof is from, incidentally.
My sister-in-law lives in Clare and we go and visit her quite a lot.
I know the Republic very well. I’ve always fancied Ulster. I’ve never been to Donegal or Derry — I would be interested to do that.
But Cork is our destination of choice, around Skibbereen especially.
What is your favourite childhood memory back in Ireland?
One time we went fishing off the beach and we caught a load of mackerel.
We cooked it on a grill on the beach, gutted them, threw the guts out to the seagulls.
Then we cooked this fresh mackerel and ate it on the beach with the sun going down in Roaringwater Bay. I thought, yes — this is living.
What is your most treasured possession or person?
My most treasured persons would be my wife Jackie and my two kids, Freddie and Lily.
They have been with me all through all of this.
Jackie is always my first reader and gives me great notes, and my kids are very good at keeping me on my toes about my politics and my social attitudes.
If a book or a line slightly misses the mark, they are quick to tell me how that might come across. Most of all, they are just great company. They love Ireland as much as I do.
More details on Mrs Doubtfire the musical click here, or for Live Aid the Musical click here.
See More: Author, John O’Farrell, Mrs Doubtfire, Spitting Image
