Actors from TV's Casualty and Coronation Street star in Sheffield Lyceum Theatre thriller Wish You Were Dead

George Rainsford and Katie McGlynn star as Det Supt Roy Grace and Cleo Morey in Wish You Were Dead at Sheffield Lyceum Theatre from June 27 to July 1, 2023.

George Rainsford (Ethan Hardy from telly’s Casualty), Clive Mantle (Mike Barratt in Casualty, Simon Horton in Vicar of Dibley) and award-winning actress Katie McGlynn (Sinead in Coronation Street and Jodie in Waterloo Road) star in Wish You Were Dead.

Wish You Were Dead, which runs at Sheffield’s Lyceum Theatre from June 27 to July 1, 2023, marks George Rainsford’s return to the stage after a decade. George has played Casualty’s amiable doctor for nine years, clocking up around 300 episodes.

He said: “I’ve always enjoyed the live element of doing a play, the audience reaction, the adrenalin it generates and so on. And the reaction we are getting from audiences so far on the tour has been amazing.

Events take a scary turn when a crime boss is released from prison and seeks revenge on the policeman who nailed him in the stage thriller Wish You Were Dead.

"Roy Grace is a fantastic role, something I can really get my teeth into.”

The twist in Wish You Were Dead is that Roy is on holiday in France with his wife, Cleo, and their baby. “He’s not working,” said George. “But when a crime boss is released from prison, he’s a man desperate to take revenge on the policeman who got him incarcerated. So, crime comes looking for Grace.

“Roy has to use all his wits to ensure his loved ones come to no harm. I think audiences like being scared. Hearing the audience jump and gasp each night is great! But it’s also great fun – there’s quite a bit of dark comedy that audiences are really enjoying.”

Katie McGlynn is making her theatre debut in the role of Cleo. She said: “What better place to start than with a Peter James play. As soon as I read the script, I completely fell in love with it.

“My career was born and bred on TV but on stage, you get to tell the story in the right order, something that rarely happens on television. You get completely engrossed in a story, taken into a different world.

"In Wish You Were Dead, Grace and Cleo have tried to get a short break from their world and gone away on holiday, only to find that crime and trouble still follow them. I’m so looking forward to performing in front of people around the country and hopefully helping them forget about their own troubles for a couple of hours.”

Tickets cost from £15; go to www.sheffieldtheatres.co.uk