Your starter for ten: Who is our most adaptable writer and why is it David Nicholls?
After hit TV and film versions of his books, now Starter for Ten and One Day are getting the musical treatment
By Isobel Lewis
Question: The 2024 novel You Are Here follows two strangers who end up on a post-divorce walking holiday together. Marnie and Michael walk across the Lake District, Yorkshire Dales and North York Moors; in which London green space do they later reunite?
Answer: Hyde Park. (Starter question, 10 points)
A few weeks ago, I was sitting opposite a male friend on the train to Manchester, when he opened his backpack and pulled out a copy of David Nicholls’ latest novel You Are Here. As he settled in to read, I noticed that the woman in his seat on the parallel table was clutching the same bright blue book. It was an amusing sight, this twenty-something man and middle-aged woman reading the same love story, their brows furrowed in symmetrical concentration. I pointed this out to my mate on arrival. He hadn’t noticed; actually he hadn’t realised that this book was written by the same guy who wrote One Day at all.
At this point, Nicholls’ work is so ubiquitous, so broadly appealing and demographic-straddling, that you can absorb it without even realising. That’s not to say that his novels lack edge, but they do have a timeless quality where even works set in the present day are ripe with nostalgia for simpler times where the opportunity to meet someone new was around every corner. That’s what made me fall in love with Nicholls’ writing – that, and the theatricality. An English and drama graduate who went on to train as an actor in New York (but always insisted performing wasn’t for him), Nicholls gets the theatrical world. Many of his characters are creatives; The Understudy centres on a down-and-out actor serving as a West End stand-in for a buzzy Hollywood star, while One Day’s Emma joins a touring theatre company as Dexter becomes a TV presenter.
And then there’s Sweet Sorrow, Nicholls’ 2019 novel set in the strangely intoxicating world of student theatre. Ahead of release, I got my hands on a proof copy (pinched from the books cupboard at my first journalism internship) and recognised every beat. Like Charlie and Fran, I too spent one sixth-form summer performing with a youth Shakespeare troupe. Nicholls captures the excruciating struggle between the teenage desire – nay, need – to be perceived as cool at all times, and the cringeworthy sincerity needed to perform. The moment his protagonist gives himself over to the Full Fathom Five Theatre Co-Operative, his world opens up, just as mine did.
Question: British novelist David Nicholls is also known for his work as a screenwriter, having written the scripts for Cold Feet, Rescue Me, and which 2018 Benedict Cumberbatch miniseries?
Answer: Patrick Melrose (5 points)
Nicholls’ books work on screen; this much we know. Having worked in television himself, with Emmy nominations to boot, the writer approaches his novels with the same visual mindset. His stories are expertly paced and structured, with characters you can instantly envisage.
But stage adaptations are trickier. Yes, the theatre has the capacity to pull on our heart strings like nothing else, but there are obvious limitations to the form. A book of his like Us wouldn’t work; there are simply too many places to visit, too many settings, with the scope inhibiting a potential play. Still, I must admit that I leapt out of my seat (or the contemporary alternative, by which I mean I reshared the announcement on Instagram with the caption: “!!!!!!!!!”) when I saw that a new musical version of Starter For Ten, Nicholls’ debut novel, was being staged at Bristol’s Old Vic Theatre.
It’s hard to remember which I discovered my love for first – that book or University Challenge itself – but as a trivia head and pub-quiz queen, I always felt like Starter For Ten was written with me in mind. I mean, a coming-of-age love story, set at Bristol University in the 1980s, where the characters are University Challenge team mates? Nothing could be more tailored to my tastes.
Once I got over that initial elation, concern naturally followed. Having reviewed plenty of film-to-musical-theatre adaptations throughout my critical career, I’m able to offer a professional verdict: many of them are Not Very Good. A musical adaptation, like an unnecessary IP-grab sequel, is unlikely to live up to the cult status of its original material. In the wrong hands, it could even dent the perception of a great film. I’ve seen both the bland musical version of The Devil Wears Prada and the endless roll-out of on-set pics from the upcoming sequel, and while neither could alter my love of the 2006 Meryl Streep movie, they have made me feel a lot ickier about it all.
Question: Starring in a 2011 screen adaptation of a British bestseller, which American actress received such widespread criticism for her on-screen Yorkshire accent that she apologised for it eight years later?
Answer: Anne Hathaway. (5 points)
Not all of Nicholls’ work has that same stageability. I mean, One Day is the obvious commercial choice for a musical makeover, given the cultural re-appreciation of the book following Netflix’s charming TV adaptation. Of course it is in the works: One Day: The Musical debuts at the Edinburgh Lyceum next spring. With a book by David Greig, it could even be quite good; the in-the-round staging with on-stage seating options is certainly intriguing. The time jumps are hard to imagine on stage, but if it worked for the critically lauded Benjamin Button, there’s nothing to say it shouldn’t be effective here.
Starter For Ten has arguably an increased potential for failure, due to the multiple works of intellectual property at play here. The trademark on the poster for Starter For Ten – billed as “a new musical” – extends to both Nicholls’ novel and the charming film starring James McAvoy that followed three years later. But there’s also University Challenge, a well-known format in itself. You want the production to feel fresh and fun, not worried about presenting these existing formats in anything but a flattering light.
First staged in Bristol in 2024, and now returning with a bigger production with new songs and a new staging, it’s Starter For Ten’s writing team who assuage my fears about the production: Emma Hall and director Charlie Parham on the book and lyrics, Hatty Carman and Tom Rasmussen on the tunes. Rasmussen is a song writer whose work I trust implicitly. Their euphoric 2023 album Body Building is a favourite of mine; when listened to at four in the afternoon, it transports me to a blissed-out state usually reserved for a sweaty club dance floor at 2am. Rasmussen and Carman used to perform together in the “queer pub rock” band Thigh High, so if anyone can write a catchy tune, it’s them.
Question: Which regional theatre in the south west of England also gives its name to a prestigious drama school, alumni of which include Olivia Colman, Daniel Day-Lewis and Pearl Mackie?
Answer: The Old Vic (5 points)
Just as it’s fitting for One Day, set at Edinburgh University, to receive its premiere in Scotland, there’s something particularly enjoyable about watching Starter For Ten in Bristol. The Old Vic is a theatre I attach huge sentimental value to, having been a significant part of my childhood theatre experiences, but there’s also something specifically exciting about watching among an audience who get all the local jokes. Standing at the Sky’s Edge was a hit at the National, but I’m sure it would have been a whole other experience at the Sheffield Crucible.
Our hero, however, is an outsider to the city: a studious 18-year-old from Essex called Brian Jackson (Adam Bregman) who grew up watching University Challenge with his dad. At night, he would dream about appearing on the show; in the show’s opening number, young Brian appears on the panel in a comically oversized suit. Back in the present day – 1985 – and following his dad’s death, it’s just Brian and mum Irene (Mel Giedroyc) at home. But things are about to change: Brian is about to become the first person in his family to go to university, and to the prestigious Bristol no less! As he waves goodbye, Irene implores him to take the family chip pan with him. Best friend Spencer, on the other hand, simply warns him not to become a wanker.
It’s a sweet set up, yet the true fun – and the really good musical numbers – come when Brian arrives in Bristol. “Fresh Meat” introduces us to the campus archetypes, where the rugby lads cajole Brian into attending his first university party, a “heaven and hell”-themed event that his sarcastic Scottish friend Rebecca (Asha Parker-Wallace) turns her nose up at. Brian dons a cheap pair of devil horns, when he stumbles upon the bouffant blonde Alice (Imogen Craig) dressed like Baz Luhrmann’s Juliet and lit by a spotlight. “I’ve been struck down by her halo/ Red lips, sipping a Strongbow,” he belts in “Touched by an Angel”.
The language and look of University Challenge are splashed throughout the show – particularly in Lee Newby’s set – yet never feel overbearing. Equally omnipresent, the original presenter of University Challenge Bamber Gascoigne (Stephen Ashfield) pops up as a surreal vision during major moments in Brian’s life, questioning him and telling him “I’m going to have to hurry you” in those oh-so-recognisable tones. I leave the theatre nostalgic for a time period I never experienced, and text all my Bristol-based friends and family telling them to get tickets, stat.
Question: British actress Lesley Manville used her 2025 Olivier win for Oedipus to call for funding increased for what?
Answer: Regional theatre (Starter, 10 points).
Thinking about Starter For Ten, I can’t help mulling over its future. This is a show that works symbiotically in Bristol; the next stop at Birmingham Rep will be a litmus test for its transfer capacity. Naturally, I’m hoping for a London run – I’d gladly watch it again. But West End audiences can be tricky, and theatre producers in the capital are often woefully unwilling to take risks, even on shows that have done well regionally.
Whereas as soon as I heard that One Day was being made into a musical too, it felt like the more obvious Nicholls candidate for a West End run. Netflix has given that story real name recognition; a number of friends who I mentioned Starter For Ten to admitted that they’d never realised it was made into a film, or conversely that the McAvoy-Cumberbatch indie flick was based on a Nicholls novel. I could be totally off the mark, but it seems likely that we’ll have to wait for One Day in the West End before Starter For Ten graces Shaftesbury Avenue. Selfishly, I’m jealous, but it’s not necessarily a bad thing. Watching the show at the Old Vic, a recent comment came to mind that a friend made about Beth Steel’s Till The Stars Fall Down, and how it was one of the first pieces of theatre she’d seen in a long time with a clear sense of place that wasn’t set in London (or an unnamed city with all the traits of the capital).
Starter For Ten’s sense of local identity is arguably less defined, but it still feels like a Bristol show. There’s comfort in the idea of it remaining in the south west, or touring to other towns with a strong student presence and campus culture. But any movement forward will only help the show. It’s a fantastic musical with a killer soundtrack and Nicholls’ ebullient optimism: exactly what the theatre audiences should be seeing right now.
Starter for Ten is at Bristol Old Vic to 11 October, and The Rep, Birmingham, 22 October to 1 November. One Day: The Musical is at The Lyceum, Edinburgh, 12 March to 5 April 2026.
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