Prolific novelist Hilary Bonner's first play Dead Lies is touring Chesterfield - starring Holby City and Hollyoaks actor Jeremy Edwards

Jeremy Edwards stars as politician Peter George in Dead Lies.

"I think this will be the first production out there on stage that addresses Partygate and the things that are going on in our Government today. For the purpose of the piece, we’re hoping that Boris (Johnson) hangs on in there for a month or two," said renowned author Hilary Bonner.

Hilary was speaking about her first play, Dead Lies, which is on tour to Chesterfield's Pomegranate Theatre.

She said: "It's a traditional thriller about relationships and sex and indiscretion and mistakes, set against the backdrop of political intrigue and scandal in high places. Our hero makes political speeches and I will be updating the speeches throughout the run to reflect the things that are happening."

It's sheer coincidence that Holby City and Hollyoaks actor Jeremy Edwards plays the lead role of a politician called Peter George, given that Hilary was partly inspired in her writing by the case of Jeremy Thorpe.Hilary said: "The play is set in north Devon, where I come from, and Jeremy Thorpe was the MP for north Devon when he was discredited and stood trial for conspiracy to murder and he was acquitted. He was a very, very charismatic political leader and heralded as a bit of a Messiah. My Peter George is also a charismatic political leader who is a good man but there may or may not be something in his past which could cause him a lot of problems.

Hilary Bonner, writer of the play Dead Lies, which will be staged at the Pomegranate Theatre, Chesterfield, from May 10 to 12, 2022.

"This piece has twists and turns all along the way until the very last line - if you want to know any more, you'll have to go and see it!"

Hilary wrote Dead Lies 15 years ago after being commissioned by a West End producer. She said: "He loved it, we made progress and he had partly cast it and we had a theatre booked, then the leading man dropped out, one or two things happened and it never went ahead.

"Then by chance I met Lee Waddingham, who is the associate producer of Red Entertainment on a Covent Garden street corner, and he was telling me about his new company and he said I don't suppose you've ever written a play have you...I said funny you should say that and he took me into his office and that time it did work out; not without Covid getting in the way and leading to two delays.