James & Jack Fox to Lead West End Transfer of DEAR LUPIN

Father and son James Fox and Jack Fox star in this brand new stage adaptation of the best-selling Sunday Times Humour Book of the Year Dear Lupin, Letters to a Wayward Son in which renowned journalist and author Roger Mortimer's brilliantly hilarious, often touching and always generous letters to his unruly son Charlie are now vividly brought to life. The production transfers to the Apollo Theatre following a successful UK tour, opening on 3 August, with previews from 30 July, and runs for a strictly limited season until 19 September.

"By turns, affectionate, touching and wry, Dear Lupin brims with a father's love for his son. An absolute delight" Daily Mail on Dear Lupin, Letters to a Wayward Son

Adapted by celebrated writer and journalist, Michael Simkins, this endearing new comedy reveals fresh, previously unknown stories of Charlie's life and his relationship with his father.

"Brilliantly written, they could offer a money back guarantee if you don't laugh" Jeremy Paxman for the Guardian on Dear Lupin, Letters to a Wayward Son

Charlie Mortimer (aka Lupin): "To have Fox father and son playing Mortimer father and son is a coup beyond my wildest dreams; and to say I am excited and delighted to see the production transfer into the West End, would be the ultimate understatement. "

"It's about a geriatric old Etonian hack and long suffering father, which ticks all the boxes for me." James Fox

Two time BAFTA award-winning actor James Fox plays Roger Mortimer. His theatre work includes The Happiest Millionaire, Henry V, All in Love, Resurrection Blues (Old Vic), Uncle Vanya (New York Square Theatre) and Afternoon Men (Arts Club Theatre). Fox has worked extensively across television and film. His television work includes Death in Paradise, Unknown Heart, 1864, The Great Train Robbery - A Copper's Tale, Utopia, Merlin, Law & Order: UK, Red Riding, Margaret, New Tricks, Harley Street, Waking the Dead, Freezing, Suez, Celebration, Absolute Power, Agatha Christie's Poirot - Death on the Nile, Trial & Retribution, Armadillo, The Lost World, Hans Christian Andersen: My Life As a Fairy Tale, Private View, Metropolis, Shaka Zulu: the Citadel, Doomsday Gun, The Old Curiosity Shop, The Choir, Gulliver's Kingdom, Doomsday Gun, Fall From Grace, The Dwelling Place, Hostage, Headhunters, A Question of Attribution, Never Come Back, A Perfect Hero, She's Been Away and These Foolish Things; and for film, A Long Way From Home, The Double, Effie, London Spy, The Chase, Isadora, Sherlock Holmes, Mr Lonely, The Prince and Me, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Mystic Masseur, Up at the Villa, The Golden Bowl, Sexy Beast, Micky Blue Eyes, Remains of the Day, Patriot Games, Afraid of the Dark, The Russia House, The Boys in the Island, Farewell to the King, The Mighty Quinn, High Season, The Whistle Blower, Comrades, Absolute Beginners, A Passage to India, Greystoke: the Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes, Performance, Thoroughly Modern Millie, King Rat, Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines, The Servant and The Miniver Story.

Jack Fox said on working with his father, "It's brilliant to see Dad return to the stage, and for me, not just as his son, but as an actor it's a huge privilege to learn from him. People assume as an actor you start as a fully finished article, but that couldn't be further from the truth - it's an honour to work with him. I hope the rapport we share in life will translate to the stage"

Jack Fox plays Charlie Mortimer / Lupin. For theatre, his credits include The Picture of Dorian Gray (Riverside Studios). For television, his work incudes Our Zoo, Mr Selfridge, Dracula, Privates, Fresh Meat, Lewis and Henry VIII: Mind of a Tyrant. His film work includes London Underground, The Messenger, Blood Moon, Kids in Love and Theeb.

Michael Simkins: "Adapting Dear Lupin was an opportunity nobody with my particular humorous sensibilities could turn down, as it's a comic masterpiece, entirely in the long tradition of great humorous English writers I grew up with and whose writing influenced my own style hugely - I'm talking of Jerome K Jerome, George & Weedon Grossmith (Diary of a Nobody - including of course Lupin), PG Wodehouse, Michael Green, Evelyn Waugh, Keith Waterhouse, right up to Bill Bryson. This book - and the play - is the natural successor to these illustrious authors. Writing dialogue and constructing an evening of drama are all new skills for me, and while it's been a long gestation, I've enjoyed the challenge enormously. I have far greater respect for dramatists as a result!"

Actor and writer Michael Simkins is currently appearing in Hay Fever at the Duke of York's Theatre.

He is also a best-selling author, journalist and broadcaster. His books include What's My Motivation?, the Costa-nominated Fatty Batter, Detour de France, The Last Flannelled Fool and, most recently, The Rules of Acting, shortlisted in 2014 for the Sheridan Morley Prize for Best Theatre Biography of the Year. He has a regular column in the Sunday Telegraph (Simkins's World) and is a frequent contributor to Radio 4's Today and Front Row. Dear Lupin is his first play.

Philip Franks is an actor and director. He has directed in the West End, at the National Theatre, the Chichester Festival and for most of the major theatres in the country. His productions include Doctor Faustus, Hamlet, The Duchess of Malfi, The Browning Version (Greenwich Theatre); Great Expectations (Salisbury Playhouse); Night Must Fall (Windsor Theatre Royal); Macbeth (Sheffield Theatres); The Duchess of Malfi (West Yorkshire Playhouse); Kafka's Dick and Kiss of the Spider Woman (Nottingham Playhouse); Rebecca and The Cocktail Party (Edinburgh); The Comedy of Errors (Regent's Park) and Sixty-Six Books (Bush Theatre). For the National Theatre: Private Lives, The Heiress and, in their Studio, Frankenstein and Early Morning. For the Chichester Festival Theatre: Nicholas Nickleby parts one and two (also touring, West End and Toronto), Taking Sides and Collaboration (also West End), Twelfth Night, The Cherry Orchard, Separate Tables, The Master Builder, The Deep Blue Sea,Rattigan's Nijinsky and A Marvellous Year for Plums.

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