Bradley Walsh, Brian Conley, Shane Ritchie and Joe Pasquale set to hit Southend stage on new tour

Southend Pavillion is set to host a new Rat Pack inspired show, with some of our favourite TV funny men. Bradley Walsh, Brian Conley, Shane Ritchie and Joe Pasquale are stopping off in Essex on their new tour, “The Prat Pack”.

Inspired by the performances of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr, Joey Bishop and Peter Lawford, the group are touring their take on the old classics, while adding their own spin with their stories and decades-long friendship to the stage. Packed with laughs and songs, backed by a 15-piece band, the show will let the audience in on the banter between some of television’s best-loved stars - who are also very close friends.

Bradley Walsh says: “People are starved of our type of entertainment - songs, stories, jokes and banter! It’s an homage to the Rat Pack but brought up to the modern day, and it’s a fantastic night. We are just thrilled. We all share the same dressing room - we’re mates. We’ve known each other for so long now - and the show is about warmth and family - because we are. It’s great, really great.”

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Walsh was joined by his three mates and the Barry Robinson Big Band for a one-off show at the Palladium in London in March, and the idea was born for a full-on Prat Pack tour. Fans can expect an evening packed with jokes that can only come from the chemistry of such seasoned entertainers. Walsh, Conley and Richie were all Pontins Bluecoats earlier in their careers and Pasquale was a Warner’s Greencoat, giving them all a grounding in variety before decades-long careers at the very top of entertainment.

Bradley Walsh says: “The show harks back to the 1950s and ‘60s - the Rat Pack era of Sinatra and the gang. The four of us have been mates for over 40 years now and we have a combined age of around 250 years, so a quarter of a millennium. The only time we were on the same show was in 1993 for the Royal Variety Performance. I’ve been desperate to put something together like this for so long.”

Tickets go on sale at 10am on Friday November 29, with the pack appearing on Southend’s stage on their closing night, May 23.