MONTY PYTHON’S Spamalot will be unleashed on Southampton next week!

Following the Pythons’ incredible ten-night sell-out run at London’s O2 Arena in 2014, the show will gallop back to Mayflower Theatre from Tuesday until Saturday ...to the sound of banging coconut shells!

Comedy star and former king of the Jungle Joe Pasquale will reprise his much loved role of King Arthur alongside EastEnders’ Todd Carty as Patsy.

Having first played King Arthur for a successful West End run last summer, comedian Joe Pasquale is pleased as punch to be back in the role and will star alongside Todd Carty, who starred as Patsy from the very start of this production both on tour and in the West End run.

Lovingly ripped off from the classic film comedy Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Spamalot is a kind of new musical with a book by Eric Idle and an entirely new score for the new production, (well, almost) created by Eric Idle and John Du Prez.

Eric Idle says of the show: "Spamalot is fun. The new production is funnier, it’s more like a Python show. There are new costumes and new sets and a new director (Christopher Luscombe), so it’s just got a whole different spirit to it."

Joe said: "I loved my time as King Arthur in the West End production. I am very excited to have been asked to return for the new UK Tour. I will be joining a fantastic Spamalot cast and can’t wait to get back on my invisible horse as we search the land for The Holy Grail."

Todd said: "I’m dusting down my coconuts as we speak, so that Patsy can go on a new adventure with King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.’

Joe Pasquale originally won the part of King Arthur through a truly unique casting process as Bonnie Langford and Joe had both appeared in ITV1’s Dancing on Ice and starred together in Pirates of Penzance, so she contacted him on Twitter when she was playing The Lady of The Lake, invited him to see her in the show and suggested to the producers that he’d be a great King Arthur (she was proved right!).

Joe’s performance has been described as “being Joe Pasquale at his very best”, having a “loveable quality” with his “comic touches and ad-libs work perfectly in the fast-paced dialogue”.

Spamalot tells the legendary tale of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table and features a bevy (or possibly a brace) of beautiful show girls, witch burnings (cancelled due to health and safety) not to mention cows, killer rabbits and French people.

The show features fantastic tunes more magical than a Camelot convention, including He Is Not Dead Yet, Knights of the Round Table, Find Your Grail and of course the Nation’s Favourite Comedy Song (Reader’s Digest Poll 2010 – before it went bust), Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life.

  •  Tickets for Spamalot are on sale from Mayflower Theatre Box Office tel: 02380 711811 or online at mayflower.org.uk.

Ovation Restaurant bookings: 023 8071 1833.