Former EastEnders star Shane Richie has told This Morning hosts Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield that people have walked out of his latest stage play.
He revealed some of the audience members have found his portrayal of comedian Archie Rice so offensive they’ve refused to stay.
Shane is currently starring in a touring production of The Entertainer, a play about a washed up comic playing the summer season and trying to reignite his career.
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Previous runs of the John Osborne play are set in 1957, but this has been updated and takes place in 1982 and the humour Archie uses is highly offensive.
As Phil quizzed him about the show, the host said: “He’s not a nice man, is he?”
Shane responded: “We’ve had people leave.
Holly asked: “Is that because people think: ‘oh that nice Shane Richie, Alfie Moon’s on stage’?”
“They see the poster and it’s based on a character called Archie Rice,” Shane explained.
“Wonderful actors have done it in the past, but they’ve all set theirs in 1957 at the end of vaudeville old time musicals, mine is set in 1982.
“It’s loosely based on a lot of the comedians from then, the stand up I do is sexist, homophobic and racist.
We’ve had people leave.
“I need the audience, they are a big major part of the show,” he continued.
“If [by] the end of Act One they loathe and detest who this character is, then the second half they get to see an insight into why he’s like that and the pay off at the end is heartbreaking.
“It’s tough to play.”
Phil interjected: “It’s tough to play because that sort of humour is deeply, deeply out of fashion, people perhaps can’t get beyond the fact it’s a play?”
“It’s intertesting seeing an audience of different generations,” Shane continued.
“There’s those that laugh with me and those that laugh at me.
“Sometimes I’ve come out and done some really horrible nasty material that jars with me as a performer, but with Archie Rice this is who he is and this is life, and I come off at the inerval and look at the rest of the cast and go ‘oh my god they laughed at that’.”
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Shane is touring in the show until the end of November.
He was on This Morning to promote his new Channel 5 show: Caravanning with Shane Richie.
The star also revealed he would be up for an EastEnders return.
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