WATCH: Endeavour star returns to the stage in Brighton

James appears alongside Ian Hallard who also wrote the play, with the piece being directed by Ian’s husband Mark Gatiss. In the late 1980s, two Birmingham school friends tentatively come out: one as gay, the other – more shockingly – as an ABBA fan. Thirty years later, they reunite to form the world’s first ABBA tribute band – in drag…

There were plans to stage the play before the pandemic shut everything down: “I first got sent the script in October last year,” James says, “and I loved it straight away. I just thought it was so funny. The lines were so brilliantly written and I just love the interaction between the characters. I found it heart-warming and it was so truthful about the way that we deal with friendship and betrayal and loyalty. What happens, the back story is these two characters that have bonded at school and they are both in their own different way the outsiders in a lot of respects. They found solace in each other’s company and they both love ABBA, and as the story unfolds it turns out that they put on a concert at school at a time when ABBA was so uncool and now they meet up almost by accident 30 years later and it's like those old friendships you have from school that just rekindle without you necessarily having seen each other for a long time. I'm one of the two mates. We are quite different characters. My character is quite flamboyant and quite cocky and quite sure of himself but as the play progresses you realise that that is a front. You see a lot of insecurity come out. You see a lot of pain and that's what I love about the play. I love plays where you get the pathos and humour and where it is just so touching.

“This is my first time on stage for ten years. I've been doing quite a lot of TV in that time and people ask whether you prefer theatre or camera but really the answer is that it always depends on what the project is and who you'll be working with. I don't have a special favourite but I do think that working in the theatre is good for you as an actor. You really do have to keep on your toes. You can't stop and say ‘Can I just do that again?’ and you also have to have the energy. But this is such a great cast.”