Jings! Crivvens! Help ma Boab! Oor Wullie moves from page to stage

The show features all the regular characters from the Sunday Post comic strip

Scotland's best-known comic-strip character has been brought to life as part of Dundee Rep's 80th anniversary celebrations.

The Oor Wullie musical will run over the festive period at the theatre, before touring Scotland between January and March.

The production is directed by Andrew Panton, who also directed The Broons touring musical in 2016.

He described the show as a "contemporary musical for Scotland."

Andrew Panton previously directed The Broons touring musical

Panton said the Rep had been planning to bring the character from page to stage for "quite a while now."

He said: "The challenge is how do you bring that two-dimensional illustrated character into 3D and how does he sound, what does he speak like.

"But also people's expectations. So we're observing where the ideas came from 80 years ago, but also trying to find that contemporary resonance and why are we telling this story now."

Martin Quinn said he hopes to make the role "his own"

Oor Wullie made his Sunday Post debut in March 1936, three years before the formation of the Dundee Repertory Theatre.

The show focuses on Wullie's search for his missing bucket and includes all of the Sunday Post characters, including Fat Boab, Soapy Soutar, Wee Eck, and PC Murdoch.

The mischievous character has previously been brought to life on stage by actors including Ugly Betty actress Ashley Jensen, who starred in an adaptation by theatrical producer Jimmy Logan.

Now Wullie is being played by Paisley actor Martin Quinn, who previously starred in the Rep's production of romantic horror Let the Right One In.

He said it was "daunting, but freeing" to be the first actor to play the character in the latest production.

He said: "It means I can kind of do whatever I want with it.

"I did a photo shoot before rehearsals and people all had their own idea about how Wullie should sit on a bucket.

"But in a way, I've got to be aware of that, but at the same time try and forget it and think I'll make this my own."

The production will tour Scotland following its run at Dundee Rep

The production will visit Edinburgh, Glasgow, Ayr, Inverness, Stirling, Aberdeen, Kirkcaldy, and Greenock.

Andrew Panton said that of all the characters in comic strips, "he is Dundee and he is Scotland."

He said: "We love shows that started their life on the Rep stage and have the means to travel.

"Oor Wullie has got his trainers on and he's going to be running all over Scotland in 2020."

Oor Wullie is still produced in DC Thomson's Dundee headquarters

Sunday Post publishers DC Thomson Media advised the production on some of the characters' "language and tone".

DC Thomson Media editor-in-chief of children's magazines and comics Alex Turner said Oor Wullie "resonates with each generation that reads him".

She said: "He has never changed much in the 83 years we have published him in the Sunday Post.

"We have updated him gradually over the years, just to make him relevant for the audience."