The TV series Shameless has inspired changes to a Pilot Theatre production about young love, reports CHARLES HUTCHINSON.

MARCUS Romer is shameless in admitting the prime influence on Pilot Theatre's revival of Beautiful Thing.

Pilot, the company in residence at York Theatre Royal, first mounted a production of Jonathan Harvey's urban fairytale in June 2003, since when one television series has had a significant impact on Romer.

"I'd been watching Paul Abbott's Shameless on Channel 4 and that was the spur to make us ask Jonathan if we could re-locate the play to Manchester, which is where Shameless is set," says the director, whose new version is a co-production with the Octagon Theatre, Bolton. "Originally Beautiful Thing was set on a council estate in Thamesmead, South east London, and obviously that has had implications on the casting. Now they're all from the North West."

The opening nods in the direction of Shameless too. "We've re-done the video at the start as an homage to Shameless, where the narrator, Frank Gallagher, introduces all the characters each episode. Basically, because Beautiful Thing is Jamie's story of self-discovery, he does the video voiceover and that enables us to place everyone from the beginning."

Beautiful Thing now takes place in the suffocating heat of July in the concrete jungle of a Mancunian council housing estate, where two teenage schoolboys, Jamie and Ste, fall in first love. The roles go to Oliver Lee, 19, from Bolton, and Jonathan Howard, 20, from Preston.

"One of the benefits of the Manchester setting is we've got two young northern actors making their debut, and I feel like Sven Goran Eriksson with Wayne Rooney in his England team!" says Marcus. "Oliver has never done more than five performances of a show for the Octagon Youth Theatre, so it's like taking him from the youth team and putting him up front in the first team."

Beautiful Thing visits The Studio at York Theatre Royal next week for the closing dates of its 2005 tour, and the reaction to Romer's revival has justified the change of setting. "We are a northern based theatre company, Bolton is a northern theatre, and so is York, and I think the comedy works just as well, if not better, and so do the characters, with the Manchester location."

The director believes the play has found its rightful home. "Jonathan Harvey is from Liverpool, and the reason he set the play away from the North originally was that he didn't want to have a dig at his roots. Now that the play is established, we're giving it the chance to come home," he says. "By letting us move the play, Jonathan has allowed us to improve on what we did two years ago."

Pilot Theatre presents Beautiful Thing, The Studio, York Theatre Royal, Tuesday to Saturday. Tickets: £3.50 to £9; ring 01904 623568. Suitable for 14 year olds upwards.

Updated: 16:29 Thursday, April 21, 2005