By Diane Parkes

When author Liz Pichon was approached by Birmingham Stage Company to discuss adapting her best-selling Tom Gates books into a theatre show she jumped at the chance of seeing her characters come to life.

Liz was aware of the hugely successful track record of BSC, who have staged Roald Dahl favourites The Witches and George’s Marvellous Medicine, Horrible Histories, Horrible Science and David Walliams’ Gangsta Granny and Awful Auntie.

And she was also impressed by the company’s ideas for staging Tom Gates – the young schoolboy who has become the hero of her series of children’s books.

“When I met BSC actor/manager Neal Foster and designer Jackie Trousdale they gave me a rough idea of how they worked and the ideas they had for the show – and I really liked their ideas,” says Liz.

“It’s interesting because I’ve always wondered how Tom Gates would translate to the stage and then talking to Neal, who has so many great ideas, I saw how it would work.”

Together Liz and Neal spent around 18 months working on the plot for the show and its staging. Despite having written 15 Tom Gates books, Liz says it was clear from very early in the process that creating a new story rather than taking an adventure from one of her current books would be the way forward.

“Not all of the books have a very, very strong plotline and the nature of the way I’ve written them is that you can very much dip in and out so you don’t have to read them in order,” she says.

“There are some things which happen in every book to do with the different characters and it felt like it would be great to be able to take some of the main themes and work them into a new story which would work better as a theatre show. This also allows us to do different things with the different characters which I might not always have had them doing in the books.

“When we first discussed it, Neal gave me a clear idea of what he would like to happen in the storyline – what kinds of things could happen to Tom. I then took those away and developed them a bit further.”

Working so closely with another writer was a new experience for Liz – but one she relished.

“I absolutely loved the process,” she says. “It’s very much Neal and I sitting in a room and coming up with the plotlines and then pushing those boundaries – asking ‘what else can happen?’ Neal has immense knowledge of what works in the theatre and it’s really interesting to learn from him as I might suggest something but then he can explain why it might not work or suggest a way of making it more visual.”

Liz’s first Tom Gates book, The Brilliant World of Tom Gates, was published in 2011 and won a host of awards including the Roald Dahl Funny Prize, the Red House Book Award Best Book for Young Readers and the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize.

Her books have now sold more than two million copies in the UK and been translated into more than 40 different languages. But when Liz first created Tom Gates she couldn’t guess how successful he would be. Her main aim was to write a book she knew children would love and in doing so she developed a distinctive scrapbook style so that the story is interspersed with doodles, pictures, lyrics and spaces for readers to add in their own thoughts.

“I started working on it as a picture book, I started doing a book called All About Me and it was based on when children first go into reception at school and they have to write a little bit about themselves and do a picture and write about their families and what they like and don’t like.

“It was a bit like a scrapbook and that went out to lots of different publishers and they all loved it but they all said there wasn’t enough of a story so I took the good bits and took that forward.

“One day I thought ‘I’m going to imagine I’m Tom’ and I wrote in an exercise book and I imagined that his teacher would also be writing in the exercise book with his comments, so he needed a different handwriting. And I started doing little doodles and drawings and then Tom writes a story about what he’s done during the summer holidays.

“And so I imagined that he was writing in a book and that was the start of it really. I was really keen to put all the things into it that I knew I would have loved at that age.”

The new version was a hit with publishers and Liz was offered a three-book deal – and she has been busy writing Tom Gates books ever since. And now Tom, his friends Amy Porter and Derek Fingle, his band Dogzombies, his sister Delia and his teacher Mr Fullerman will reach new audiences through the theatre.

“I think one of the things that children like about the books is that they see themselves in there, they can recognize elements of what Tom’s about, and I hope this will also be the case with the stage show,” says Liz. “I’d love to get children into the theatre who maybe wouldn’t have come to the theatre before to see something different. But they don’t need to know my books or Tom Gates at all beforehand. They will love the show anyway.”

Liz is looking forward to seeing Tom and his friends onstage.

“I’m really excited about it. Jackie, the designer, has so many great ideas – it’s very strong on visuals, songs and music. Neal was keen to do something different and try and get the humour and the energy of the books into the show.

“I can’t wait for everyone to dip their toe into the world of Tom Gates. Making it a real world, and making it something completely different in the theatre, is so exciting – it gives it another element which I can’t do in the books.”

Tom Gates Live is at Venue Cymru in Llandudno from the 11 – 15 September 2019, tickets are available from the Venue Cymru website and the Box Office on 01492 872000.