Strictly Come Dancing rivals Kendall and Tointon reunite in Ayckbourn classic
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London Theatre Direct
After battling against each other on series 8 of BBC1's Strictly Come Dancing in 2010, evergreen beauty Felicity Kendall and Eastender-gone-good Kara Tointon will be sharing the stage in the revival of Alan Ayckbourn's fizzy comedy Relatively Speaking. Kendall made it to the Blackpool stage of the tv dance competition but it was Tointon who eventually went on to win the series.
The two ex-competitors will be treading the boards in Relatively Speaking's limited 3-month run from mid May at the Wyndhams Theatre. Best known for her long-running role as Barbara Good in 70s tv series The Good Life, Kendall's subsequent career has seen her on screen opposite Pam Ferris in the hugely popular Rosemary & Thyme as a pair of crime-fighting gardeners, as well as roles in Solo and The Camomile Lawn.
The Good Life ran for four series between 1975 and 1978 with Kendall playing alongside Richard Briers, Penelope Keith and Paul Eddington. The show is often named as one of the UK's most popular and enduring sitcoms and sprung Kendall to national fame as well as turning her into an overnight sex symbol - she won Rear of The Year in 1981. The eternally youthful actress' recent stage credits include Simon Gray's The Last Cigarette in 2009 and George Bernard Shaw's Mrs Warren's Profession in 2010. Both productions made successful transfers from the Chichester Festival Theatre to the West End.
Kara Tointon played Dawn Swann in soap opera Eastenders for five years until August 2009. She has since won universal acclaim for her turn as Eliza Doolittle in the 2011 Philip Prowse production of Pygmalion at the Garrick Theatre opposite Rupert Everett and Dame Diana Rigg. In 2010 she filmed a documentary for BBC3 entitled Kara Tointon: Don't Call Me Stupid in which she revealed that she has dyslexia and has a reading age of 12. The show explored the effect that dyslexia can have on people's lives and saw her visit a specialist school that teaches pupils suffering with the learning disability.
Relatively Speaking will also be a reunion for Kendall with Max Bennett who starred alongside her in Mrs Warren's Profession. Bennett was recently in Posh at the Duke Of York's theatre. Completing the cast will be Jonathan Coy whose tv credits include Hornblower, Brideshead Revisited and Downton Abbey.
The show will play a limited run from 14 May to 31 August.
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