BAFTA-WINNING actor Peter Capaldi will be making a return to a city he has developed a special affinity for when he stars in the world premiere of The Ladykillers at the Liverpool Playhouse this autumn.

Glaswegian Capaldi played George Harrison in a 1985 TV series about John Lennon and Yoko Ono, as well as performing in Willy Russell’s Beatles play John, Paul, George, Ringo & Bert, and regards both experiences fondly.

He recalled with a smile: “Doing the TV drama really was great fun.

“It was done in America and very much on a budget.

“They cast us all as completely the wrong height, although we did not find that out until the first day of filming!

“We came out to play at a supposed Shea Stadium, with Ringo being a huge, tall guy and Mark McGann playing John.

“I had a Beatles guitar as a kid and a black, vacuum-formed Beatles wig from Woolworths which used to almost cut my ears off.

“Hearing their music takes me right back to my days of growing up in Glasgow tenement buildings – I always thought they were amazing.

“Doing the Beatles play was actually one of my first proper jobs as an actor and I was embraced by Willy and his lot through that role and ended up in Blood Brothers, so I have always felt at home in Liverpool since then.” The Ladykillers will be Capaldi’s first theatre work for five years, and he is aware he is leaping back in at the deep end.