Eh Up, Me Old Flowers!

The hit Edinburgh Fringe show makes its London debut!

Simon Fielder is bringing his production of Chris England’s highly acclaimed Eh Up, Me Old Flowers! to the White Bear, Kennington from 9th – 20th September 2025.

The play was a critical and popular hit at the 2022 Edinburgh Fringe Festival and now, in a slightly extended version, makes its London première ahead of a 2026 regional tour.

In the 1970s the biggest comedy show on television was ITV’s The Comedians.  It took bow-tie comics from the Northern club circuit, put them on the screen for the very first time, and made them into overnight sensations.  And the breakout star, the one who shone brightest of all, was Charlie Williams.

Charlie was the first black comedian to become a household name.  With his toothy grin, his infectious laugh, and his incongruous thick South Yorkshire accent – ‘Tha’s right, love, right accent, wrong colour!’ – he paved the way for  many who followed in his footsteps, such as Lenny Henry and Gary Wilmot.

It wasn’t only as an entertainer that Charlie was a pioneer who broke down barriers.  He was one of the very few black professional footballers in the 1950s, playing for Doncaster Rovers.  He was the only black lad at his school near Barnsley, and the only black lad down the mine when he left.

Perhaps his material would nowadays be considered questionable.  But perhaps if you had lived his extraordinary life in a white man’s world – coal miner, footballer, cabaret singer, comedian – you’d have done the same.

Now, however, in retirement, Charlie faces an uncomfortable visit from a mysterious stranger who demands that he justify himself…

Written and directed by Chris England (An Evening with Gary Lineker, Breakfast With Jonny Wilkinson, Bostock’s Cup, The Famous Sloping Pitch)

Starring Tony Marshall (Casualty, Only Fools and Horses, Life on Mars, Death In Paradise)

Visitor played by Nick Denning-Read (Red Dwarf, The Perfect Couple, I Came By, Trigger Point)

Playwright Chris England says: ‘I was particularly drawn to Charlie’s remarkable life story because I too grew up in a mining town, not too far from Doncaster, and the great passions of my life have been football and comedy. So Charlie’s ups and downs always seemed to belong to one of our own.’