A big-screen adaptation of the Madness singer’s stage autobiography will combine live performance and archive clips with dramatised scenes

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Madness singer Suggs is having his autobiographical stage show, My Life Story, turned into a film musical directed by Julien Temple, according to Screen Daily.

Suggs, real name Graham McPherson, has been performing his stage show since 2012. Incorporating speech, standup and excerpts of songs by Madness and their contemporaries, it tells the story of Suggs struggling to find meaning in life as he enters his 50s.

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Temple, director of The Filth and the Fury, The Great Rock’n’Roll Swindle and The Ecstasy of Wilko Johnson, will take the show one step beyond by combining live performance and archive clips with dramatised scenes from McPherson’s life. The film, which starts shooting in Hoxton, London next month, will be screened next year.

Suggs, now 55, has been the lead singer of Madness since 1977, helping the group to 15 UK Top 10 hits before they broke up in 1986. His solo career, which was launched in the wake of Madness’s reunion in 1992, led to the singles Cecilia and Camden Town. He’s supplemented his singing with stints as a TV presenter, radio DJ and author.