THE outrageous cult classic The Rocky Horror Show is playing at Southampton’s Mayflower theatre for one week in January as part of a UK tour.

Starring Olivier Award-winner David Bedella as Frank ’n’ Furter, the show tells the story of engaged sweethearts Brad and Janet who seek refuge in a castle filled with an outrageous group, and classic songs including The Time Warp and Sweet Transvestite.

Richard O’Brien, writer of the show which premiered at the Royal Court Theatre in June 1973, said: “Rocky Horror is one of those great joys in my life because it’s a great joy in other people’s lives. I love the fact that show comes into town and it cheers people up.

“It keeps employing young artists, young singers … what a wonderful thing to be giving people pleasure for 30 years.”

Speaking about his inspiration for the show, he added: “I used to love watching the late-night B-movies on television in the late 1960s, early 1970s.

“At 11.30pm at night, the only people watching television were night owls, people like myself, so they didn’t bother with putting anything on that had cost a great deal of money – they put on a creaky old movie.

“I used to just roar with laughter at how they used to take themselves so seriously, and it became unintentionally funny. That’s what I wanted to capture and write about.”

When it came to the film, he said that Alan Ladd Jr, head of 20th Century Fox at the time, wanted to ditch the project but the green light had already been given.

O’Brien said: “He thought it was trashy and he didn’t like it at all.”

Tickets for the show, which is running in Southampton from January 18 to 23, are available from the box office on 02380 711811, or online at mayflower. org.uk.