Matthew Kelly tells Viv Hardwick about the appeal of 200 years of Pride and Prejudice

OUR 200-year love affair with Jane Austin’s romantic comedy Pride and Prejudice makes a perfect appearance on Valentine’s Day at Newcastle Theatre Royal next week... with the acerbic Matthew Kelly perfectly-cast as the cantankerous father figure of Mr Bennet.

Is Kelly only known as Mr Bennet, or does his character have a Christian name such as Gordon or Alan? “It’s Keith probably, oh no, don’t say that because that’s one of the children in the Moors’ Murders, the one that’s never been found. How weird that popped into my head, and the reason it did is because the guy who I share a dressing room with told me his wife’s mother and grandmother are psychics and the grandmother got called in on the Moors’ Murders. We were only talking about that the previous night... well that’s a great start,” says Kelly with a note of anxiety.

He admits to signing up for the tour because if offered a chance to work with Felicity Montagu as Mrs Bennet. “Felicity and I did a TV series called Kelly’s Eye for two years, 30 years ago, and we haven’t seen each other since. The series was never re-commissioned, but I’ve seen her career advance in Alan Partridge, Bridget Jones’ Diary and playing Captain Mainwaring’s wife in the new Dad’s Army film. I know she is a fantastic actress because she will never go for a cheap option.

“Mrs Bennet is a really dangerous part because she could be seen as a clown, and is sometimes played that way, or a silly, frivolous woman. She is bonkers, but the reason for this is that she’s had five daughters and more pregnancies than that, it being 1813. She’s probably had post-natal depression, plus the fact there is now six women in the house and Mr Bennet’s estate is destined for a cousin, with the women being thrown out if Mr Bennet dies.

“Mrs Bennet is a woman on the edge and has every right to be bonkers and Mr Bennet is no help at all. He’s withdrawn and is, in fact, the best part in the show. He sits around reading the newspaper and making fantastic comments and then has the best scene right at the end which he tries to dissuade Elizabeth (Tafline Steen), his favourite daughter, from marrying Mr Darcy (Benjamin Dilloway). So it’s a kind of win-win for me.”

Kelly also pays tribute to director Deborah Bruce for taking on the project. “You say, ‘Pride and Prejudice, really?’ You’re going to deliver an entire 200-year-old novel on stage, which I consider to be chick-lit and have never read... until I got this job. Now we have a production done on a giant revolve and it helps move the production really fast using a cast of 20. The ballroom scenes look good, and the detail in it is astonishing. It’s a celebration for the eyes and the dialogue is taken straight out of the book because Jane Austen wrote in those terms. The Austen family used to read her work to each other of an evening. Well there wasn’t much on the telly in those days... and there’s bugger all now. And I think her family would criticise what her characters said, or be laughing their heads off,” he says.

The actor likes the level of accuracy and authenticity in the play and is fascinated by the fact that the novel was originally called First Impressions, but had its name changed following the success of Sense and Sensibility. “Her publisher obviously told her, ‘Alliteration is selling, Jane old love. It’s a winner’,” Kelly jokes.

The first part of the tour was last year and the 2017 additional dates celebrates the author’s death and sees the actor reach his fifth decade in the profession. “If you look at my CV it appears I’ve been quite clever. You could say, ‘Blimey that’s jammy’, but there was never any choice to make. I’ve never done anything I can’t put my heart in, but there is clearly things I’ve done for the money. But we’ve all got to live,” says the man who found fame with TV’s Game For A Laugh, You Bet, Stars In Their Eyes, After They Were Famous, Cold Blood and Benidorm.

But he feels his stage craft, learned at the Manchester Polytechnic and alongside Julie Walters and Pete Postlethwaite, was constantly in use in spite of gaining few accolades until the past 20 years.

“While I was doing the black, shiny floor shows on Saturday night TV, I was still doing tours in rep. It was a bit like practising in private because when I stopped doing TV presenting and acted, people said, ‘I didn’t know you could do that’. Why would anyone know? In the early days we’d get 18 million people watching a TV series, but to play a theatre for eight shows a week, even if you filled it, I’d have to be in that place for twice a day for 60 years to achieve the same numbers. Well, frankly, I haven’t got the time, I have a very tight schedule.”

An appearance as Lennie in John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men; appearing in Peter Shaffer’s Amadeus and as Willie Thorn in the farce Out For Justice has seen Kelly described as one of the finest comic actors of his generation.

Kelly scoffs at the news and says: “I did a panto a few years ago for Bill Kenwright and he’s one of these people who puts Matthew ‘Stars In Their Eyes’ Kelly playing the King. I said, ‘You’re not putting that because it’s been nearly 15 years’. He said, ‘Would you settle for National Treasure’? and I said, ‘I’ll give you money to put that in print’, so that’s what he put on the poster.”

He admits to being frightened about having the energy these days to carry off stage roles and adds: “I might have to have a little lie-down after this interview.”

Not everything goes to plan. An appearance in the Richard Bean play Toast, about seven Hull bakery workers, struggled on Broadway recently with a glossary of terms required for theatre-goers. Finally, a presenter was sent out to introduce each show.

“He went out and said, ‘This is set in a little village called Hull, just off the North of England’... so there you go.”

Pride and Prejudice, Newcastle Theatre Royal, Tuesday, February 14 to Saturday, February 18. Box Office: 08448-112121 or theatreroyal.co.uk