Footballers' Wives To Return As Stage Musical, Creator Confirms

Tanya Turner is being brought back to life in a new stage show based on the ITV series.
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With the nation hungry for more Footballers’ Wives after the real-life drama of the WAGatha Christie saga, it seems our prayers have been answered.

The outrageous 00s series, which followed the off-field antics of the wives and girlfriends of a fictional football team, is being turned into a musical.

Maureen Chadwick, one of the show’s original creators, confirmed to Radio Times that the stage show is currently being written.

The original cast of Footballers' Wives
The original cast of Footballers' Wives
ITV

The adaption will be based on the first series of the show, which followed Tanya Turner and her fraught marriage to footballer, Jason Turner.

However, it is unlikely any of the cast from the ITV series will reprise their roles, with casting due to begin later this year, before a planned opening sometime in 2020.

A full revival of the series is still a way off though, as producer Liz Lake said there are currently no plans for it to return to TV.

She said: “If there’s an appetite for it, and enough people want it, it would be worth having that conversation.

“Whatever job I do, I get people telling me they loved Footballers’ Wives. It was an escape and a bit of refreshing camp, but it was still really bold storytelling.

“I think we’d prefer to have an update than a reboot, a revival moving it forward.

“It’s more than just nostalgia, it’s about seeing what life is like now.”

Zoe Lucker (right) played Tanya Turner
Zoe Lucker (right) played Tanya Turner
ITV

Zoe Lucker, who played Tanya Turner in the original, said: “The thing that would worry me is, what if it wasn’t as good?

“I always panic about that. The fact that people still talk about it the way they do, I would hate for any of us to go back and for any of us to be disappointed and it would be such a shame.”

Footballers’ Wives originally aired on ITV from 2002 to 2006 and featured a number of wild and ridiculous storylines.

Creator Maureen previously brought sister series Bad Girls to the stage with a musical version in 2006.

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