McGann brothers reunite for new show

Mark (L) and Paul McGann will be performing at the Merlin Theatre on 20 September

Two actor brothers are performing in a new show at a Somerset theatre next month.

Mark and Paul McGann, who have performed together across stage and screen for more than 40 years, will be performing at the Merlin Theatre in Frome on the 20 September.

The performance, "Mark McGann: In His Life", will map the his time growing up with his brothers Paul, Joe and Stephen in Liverpool during "Beatlemania".

Mark said: "That for me is the real pleasure, being able to revisit these wonderful memories we had as kids."

Mark played John Lennon in "In My Life" at the Liverpool Everyman Theatre in 1981.

He reprised the role for the show at the Royal Court Theatre in Liverpool in August 2015 and has performed the show on and off for decades.

Mark McGann: In His Life premiered at Liverpool's Everyman Theatre on the 22 August during International Beatles week.

Mark moved to Frome in 2006 while Paul is now based in Bristol. Mark said the Merlin Theatre has become "a home away from home".

He said: "I feel for it like so many incredible theatres in the country that have lost their grant.

"[They're] surviving on the efforts of volunteers. And they've been very kind to me.

"This is the first opportunity I had to do something substantial [at the theatre]."

The four McGann brothers grew up in Liverpool during the height of Beatlemania

The performance will include Mark talking about his life growing up in Liverpool in the 1960s, with original songs sung by Mark and Paul.

Mark said: "There's a poem in there called Merseybeat which is about Paul and I playing out as kids, as dirty youngsters in the run down streets of Liverpool."

He told the BBC that the city, which was in economic decline during their childhoods, made it easier to get into acting as people "went into the arts as a way out".

The actor added: "It's impossible to grow up in a city like Liverpool at that time, that was still quite vibrantly feeling the effects of Beatlemania and Merseybeats, without catching that sense of anything being possible."