But can it buy happiness? ...Brooke Vincent in a publicity image for The Syndicate. Photo: Craig Sugden
"Don't get too close to him," Gaynor Faye tells an actor as she directs rehearsals of The Syndicate, a stage adaptation of Kay Mellor's TV series about lottery winners. "This is theater, so open up the space." We're in a rehearsal room at the Leeds Grand Theater, and on the table where Faye sits - ring-bound script, pencils, reusable water bottle - is a second plastic chair traditionally placed in a rehearsal room for a writer, co-director or producer. This show is empty, following Mellor's sudden death at the age of 71 in 2022. Her absence would be poignant anyway, but even more so because Faye is Mellor's daughter. In the original plan, Faye would have occupied that second seat as Mellor's deputy director.
"Mum left a very good first draft of the stage version of The Syndicate," the director explains over lunch. "I worked on that, using her notes on what she wanted to do in the next draft, and going back to the TV scripts and adding some bits that I thought should be in."
It ruins the lives of some characters - the audience has to decide if they want to become so rich
Mellor was one of TV's most talented writers, specializing in female-led stories about working-class Yorkshire: sex workers in Band of Gold, a women's football team in Playing the Field, a slimming club in Fat Friends and four series of The Syndicate. The play is based on the first season, in which the problems of five supermarket workers - poverty, illness, failing relationships - are not necessarily solved by sharing a £20 million jackpot.
"I think mom did that so well," says Faye. "She wanted to give each character, even the little ones, depth and a backstory. We know from the beginning that they are going to win the lottery, but she has caused all these complications. She was fascinated by what winning so much money did to you: what did you gain? It ruins the lives of some characters, but improves the lives of others. The public has to decide if they want to become that rich."
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A show so intertwined with her grief is clearly difficult for Faye to talk about, but like the production, this interview is a child's duty: 'The Guardian was my mother's newspaper. She read it every day."
For the surviving relatives, memories or reminders have a double benefit: restoring the connection but also underscoring loss. While working with her late mother for months, Faye is confronted with an extreme version of this? "Mm." She clears her throat. "My father immediately asked us to keep Rollem [Mellor's production company] to go. And in terms of this piece, my mother's legacy is very important to me, so it was a quick decision that we would continue. I thought, 'Why not do it if my mom was so excited about it?'"
I thought, why not do it if my mom was so excited about it?
Does Faye feel like talking to the writer? "The writer! I always know what she is should not want, so I work on that basis. I don't actually talk to her, but I'm a Buddhist, so I have a picture of her on my back Butsudan [home altar] and I look at her every day as I pray for loved ones who have passed away. So I think about her a lot anyway. And sometimes I think I feel and channel her. Sometimes people say, "I actually had a flash of your mother there." At auditions, people have sometimes done a double take. I think I've always had her mannerisms, but when that person is gone, I suddenly become that person.
Three generations of the family are involved in The Syndicate, which will tour Britain: Mellor, Faye, who also plays the lottery company consultant, and Oliver Anthony - Faye's son - who plays the younger brother of one of the overnight millionaires. The city feels very dynastic at the moment: Archie Gray, full-back in Leeds United's promotion team, is the son, grandson and great-nephew of previous players for the club. 'It must be something from Leeds!' laughs Faye. 'The Greys, the Mellors.'
However, none of the showbiz clan share a surname, and not for reasons that female identity disappears during marriage: Faye and Anthony chose to drop Mellor due to the industry's suspicions about professional inheritance. Both appeared on TV's The Syndicate, and Faye also appeared on Band of Gold. Otherwise they are successful: they in Coronation Street and Emmerdale, and on stage in Calendar Girls; him in BBC3's My Left Nut - but keep muttering that sweating in the profession can be pointless if you don't have the blood.
"My mother always said, 'Gaynor, if you weren't any good, I wouldn't hire you!' But yeah, it's a thing. Ollie used the surname Anthony because he had seen the 'nepotism' people said about me and mum. Ollie wanted to do it himself. And it was only at this point that he was happy to "come out" about his connection with me and "Nankay," as the grandkids called Mom: Nan Kay. Now he says he wants to be proud of being Kay Mellor's grandson."
Faye points out that neither she nor her son had planned to perform in The Syndicate until a last-minute reshuffle caused by Max George withdrawing for medical reasons: "Ollie has taken over from Max. Ollie did all the original workshops and he had worked extensively with my mother as an actor and writer. But when it comes to casting in the theater, you need some "names" in the leading roles. So Ollie very graciously let the role go to someone else. And then agreed to intervene if we had a problem."
The names that theater producers seek for regional tours are often followed on publicity posters by so-called television brackets. Samantha Giles has "(Emmerdale)", Brooke Vincent "(Coronation Street)", in addition to Faye's stints in both. "There's snobbery in it," she says. "But soap actors are fantastic. It's brutal, it's a machine, and they're brilliant at keeping it going and keeping it fresh: 13 scenes a day and then going home to learn the 13 for tomorrow. But in the theater they love having time to explore."
Five minutes before lunch, the actors discovered a tricky subtext in a scene, and Faye could say they would spend the first part of the afternoon exploring it: "That could never happen on TV." It used to be a rehearsal record. But now, especially in soaps, it's just a record."
Can you imagine what a story it would be if our cast won the lottery?
When Faye played Judy Mallett in Coronation Street in the 1990s, the audience numbered around 20 million, while as many as 7 million viewers saw her as Megan in Emmerdale 20 years later. Now the shows are lucky enough to reach 3 million. "It's sad. I was lucky to be in the glory days. But I think there's so much choice now, and people are binging on box sets and streamers, so they're not going to be on at the same time every day of the week get started. People have such busy lives. And of course I hope that some people don't watch soaps because they come to the theater!"
However, she notices that the home medium influences the external medium: "Sometimes people talk in the audience because they are used to Gogglebox and chat while they watch. At Calendar Girls, there were a few locations - I won't say which ones - where people were sitting in the stalls on their phones saying, 'Mom, I'm watching her on the telly!' And we stood on stage and were like, 'Oh my God!' You just have to keep going and think, 'That's the beauty of live theater.' And on this tour we are going to those theaters again."
The obvious final question: is the cast all playing the lottery as a syndicate? "We didn't do that! But yes, we have to. Can you imagine what a story it would be if we won? But we will do it. I'm going to buy a raffle ticket for each cast as a gift for the first night."
* At Leeds Grand from April 18 to 28, then on tour across Britain