Viv Hardwick finds out what it takes to undress the thrills in The Full Monty for director Jack Ryder and star Gary Lucy

EASTENDERS star Jack Ryder never thought that he would become the go-to guy for naked acting when he was killed off as Jamie Mitchell in 2002.

There were small beginnings, if you’ll pardon the expression, as he shifted from TV to the stage and a role in Calendar Girls, where it was all about slightly bigger cakes becoming an asset in the true-life tale of North Yorkshire’s Rylstone WI.

Ryder switched to assistant director on a follow-up tour and is now the hands-on director of The Full Monty, where it’s all about Sheffield beefcakes getting their kit off for entertainment.

“If anyone hears about a play that has nudity in it they ask if Jack Ryder is directing. But actually I was involved in The Full Monty on stage at the very start of its development, which is why I feel especially protective and proud of it,” he says.

The latest tour returns to the Sunderland Empire for the week of Monday, March 20 to Saturday, March 25, with fellow EastEnder Gary Lucy in the lead role of Gaz, plus Andrew Dunn, Louis Emerick, Chris Fountain, Anthony Lewis and Kai Owen.

“Directing was something that was always whispering to me,” he says. “As Spielberg once said, the things you choose to do in life don’t usually come in loud shouts or chants; they come in whispers and you need to listen hard for them. I think directing had been whispering to me for a while, but it took me time to hear.”

Ryder’s also directed the short film Act Of Memory, starring Claire Skinner, Owen Teale and Anna Massey, which was selected for several international festivals, including Cannes.

Asked about his interest in the world of acting and actors, he laughs that he had very little early interest in the Arts. “I was very late coming to theatre – being a 1990s kid I grew up watching movies on cable telly. My dad occasionally took me to the opera, but I found it quite boring and so I’d sit and play with my toy cars instead,” he says.

Ryder’s role in EastEnders came about by chance. “I never trained as an actor so everything I know I have learned hands-on. EastEnders came about by accident when I was 16. I went to a workshop with a mate who wanted to audition and I got spotted. I’d never even done a school play before then,” he says.

The movie version of The Full Monty became an instant hit in 1997, but Ryder is proud of the fact he’s been involved in the stage adaptation since the start. So what retains his interest in this Yorkshire-set tale of a strip troupe?

“It’s the writing. Simon Beaufoy (the film creator) really gets that balance between comedy and heartfelt truth. You have drama and big moments and then on the next page you find hilarious comedy. He’s so clever at that light and shade, and also at writing in a way that means that actors and directors connect so readily with the material that it makes the process of getting it on its feet so easy – it’s all just there.

“And it endures because of its truth. You can take off all the clothes in the world, but if the audience hasn’t been on the journey and believed every moment then it won’t amount to a thing; you’ll never get that incredible reaction. At that final dance they don’t just think ‘Yay! We’re at a strip show’. The audience has followed these characters and they’re watching Lomper, Gaz, Dave and the boys; they’re with them and they believe them.”

Lucy and co still have a script to stick to, even when they’re letting it all hang out, so to speak. “My hand is extremely tight on the reigns when it comes to the cast staying in character and forgetting the audience completely,” says Ryder.

“But I have cast some amazing actors and so as a director I don’t have to get too mechanical; the boys bring an authenticity to the rehearsal room that is a breath of fresh air.”

This is Gary Lucy’s four outing as the redundant steelman Gaz, who desperately needs money for child maintenance. “It’s a play that is all about camaraderie and friendship and we’ve really got that with this cast, which is brilliant. Jack Ryder also has got great energy and fresh ideas,” he says.

“As a family man I know how Gaz feels because, as a dad, I have that point of reference. When you get older and gain more life experience you can draw on that as an actor” adds the father of three (the youngest being a toddler).

The Full Monty was his stage debut, and inevitably, the question has to be asked about him appearing in the altogether for so many performances. “Listen, by the time we get to that point in the play we’re well up for it. We don’t think of it as an isolated moment. The whole play builds to it. The audience is whipped to a frenzy and then there’s a point at the very end where, if the lighting cue goes wrong as it has done in the past, people get a bit more than they’ve paid for,” he jokes.

Lucy admits that his early days in the show were a baptism of fire. “It was a big challenge and quite scary, but what an opportunity. To play the lead in the stage production of such an iconic British movie was something I had to grab with both hands. It gives me such a buzz and I really don’t think there will ever by a show to live up to it for me,” he says, about the one performance that you can enjoy the best with your clothes off.

The Full Monty, until March 25. Sunderland Empire. Box Office: 0844-871-3022 or ATGtickets.com/Sunderland