Johnny Vegas and writer Graham Duff are bringing their cult sitcom Ideal to the stage to celebrate its 20th anniversary, here are the details.
Johnny Vegas – real name Michael Pennington – began his career as a esoteric stand up comic. In his performances he often incorporated pottery, using the skills he learnt completing a BA in Art and Ceramics.
He worked his way up the comedy circuit, eventually joining Stewart Lee, Simon Munnery and Roger Mann in comedy troupe Club Zarathustra in the late 1990s. And the following decade, he properly broke into television.
Ideal is a sitcom written by Graham Duff. that premiered in 2005, Vegas starred as Moz, a drug dealer in Manchester, and his eclectic clientele with whom he does business in his squalid flat. Regular characters included Cartoon Head, a sinister, silent figure never seen without his mouse mask head, Nicola Reynolds as Moz’s girlfriend Nicki,. Duff himself as the exceedingly camp Brian and Ryan Pope as ‘Psycho’ Paul.
Many comedians appeared across the series, including Sean Lock, Seymour Mace, Tony Burgess, Joanna Neary, Jo Enright, Andrew Lawrence and Mick Miller.
The show ran for seven series from 2004 to 2011 on BBC Three, steadily building a fervent fanbase and a loyal following. Duff and Vegas have always talked about resurrecting Ideal as a feature film, with Duff completing a screenplay.
According to the British Comedy Guide, Ideal is coming to the Salford stage next year. Duff has written a brand new show which will premiere in September 2025.
The synopsis reads as follows:
Moz, and gangsters Psycho Paul and Cartoon Head must dispose of a dead body. But when they discover priceless diamonds inside the corpse, things spin out of control. Can they stop Cartoon Head from going on a killing spree? Will big gay Brian find true love? And can Moz survive the strangest night of his life?.
The producers said “The multi-award winning BBC TV sitcom Ideal will transfer from screen to stage, with a special 20th anniversary theatre show. Created by the team behind the original hit TV series, Johnny Vegas reprises his role as Moz: Manchester’s longest serving weed dealer, in a ‘dope opera’ of epic proportions. Featuring many of the beloved, long running BBC TV comedy’s most iconic characters and actors, the Ideal live show is dark, surreal and laugh out loud funny.. Fans of the show will not be disappointed, as Ideal’s most memorable characters reunite for this unmissable live tale”. And for those just discovering Ideal, thanks to all seven series recently dropping on BBC iPlayer, it’s a chance to get to know the wild world of Moz and friends up close and personal”.
All seven series of Ideal recently dropped on BBC iPlayer.
