The Parent Agency: an interview with David Baddiel

When the idea of writing a children’s book was first suggested to David Baddiel, it turns out he wasn’t all that keen.

“What I said was, ‘I haven’t got an idea for a children’s novel, and I’m not interested in writing one if I don’t have a good idea’,” he admits. “I’m never interested in writing anything unless I have an idea.”

That, it seemed, was that. Until one day that is, and a chance conversation with his son about the world’s most famous boy wizard. Why, pondered eight-year-old Ezra, doesn’t Harry Potter run away from the dreadful Dursleys and find some better parental figures to live with?

The question turned out to be a lightbulb moment for the comedian, writer and presenter. Or rather, in his words, ‘a kind of tuning fork went off inside me’.

“It gave me an idea, which is about a world in which kids can choose their parents, and I just wrote it,” he recalls. “It never bothered me that it came from my son, that slightly strange idea that if you’re not happy with your parents you can change them!”

The result was the best-selling The Parent Agency, the story of Barry Bennett who wishes he could swap his annoying mum and dad for a new set – only to find himself suddenly transported from his bedroom to an alternate universe where kids can choose their own parents.

Photo by Mark McNulty

Now 11 years (and a further 10 children’s books) later, The Parent Agency’s parentally challenged young protagonist is leaping off the page and onto the stage in the new all-singing, all-dancing, all-parent testing musical receiving its world premiere here at Chester Storyhouse.

The production brings together David, who has written the book and lyrics, with none other than Dan Gillespie Sells, the Ivor Novello award-winning frontman of The Feeling and composer behind Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, who has written the music.

It was during early conversations with the show’s producers Scenario Two that the singer-songwriter’s name came up as a possible collaborator.

David says: “I’d seen Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, and I thought ‘oh that would be brilliant’. To be honest with you, I think he’s a genius.”

He adds: “One of the things someone once said to me is that every song should feel dramatically that the characters have no choice but to burst into song, either because they’re passionate, or something ridiculous has happened or because it’s a really energetic moment where you can’t contain yourself.

“With Dan, we felt it, we felt ‘this is something that needs to happen here’. I’d start writing the lyrics in front of him, and then give them to him and he’d go to his piano and start making it happen, in this magical way.

“It’s really beautiful. I love that.”

The creative team also includes director Tim Jackson, hot foot from guiding Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York), and Six choreographer Carrie-Anne Ingrouille. Meanwhile, set designer Jon Bausor’s many stage credits include musicals Bat Out of Hell, Busgy Malone and The Band.

“I love Tim Jackson, because he’s just unbelievably funny but also very, very collaborative, always wanting to hear my thoughts,” David says. “Not at all a director who says ‘right, thanks for this, I’ll go and direct it’.”

Members of the creative team in rehearsals – photo by Marc Brenner

While The Parent Agency is a children’s novel and the book’s many young fans (and also not so young – its original readers are now in their late teens) will certainly revel in Barry’s exploits as he auditions prospective mums and dads, the musical is aimed at a broad family audience and is also very much about parenting.

“It’s a musical about the relationship between parents and children,” says the dad-of-two. “A comic relationship, but it’s got more moving things in it than I think the book has. And there’s certainly a song in it at the end which, well, I cry every time I hear it, a love song sung by Barry’s real parents called Everyday Love.

“I’ve never played it to any parent without them immediately being reduced to tears. Because that’s actually a love that’s very rarely expressed.”

Chester audiences may be the first to need tissues at the ready, but there are also plans for a UK tour to follow and, everyone involved in the show including David hopes, a West End run.

The 60-year-old is no stranger to Storyhouse, having appeared on stage both with a comedy hat on and, more recently, to talk about The Parent Agency and his latest book, Small Fry, as part of the annual WayWord festival.

“I’ve played Storyhouse as a stand-up and really liked it, I thought it was a really good new venue, a really beautiful room and a good size,” he confirms.

“It’s also not just a theatre, there’s a library and a lot of stuff for kids. So I thought it was a really good place to start this.”