Ray and the Kinks are set to become celluloid heroes! Story of how sixties icon coped with the 'mayhem of fame' to become a new film

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The story of how Sixties icon Ray Davies coped with the ‘mayhem of fame’ is being turned into a movie.

The project is based on the Olivier Award-winning musical Sunny Afternoon, which charted how, in 1964, Davies, his brother, Dave, bass guitarist Pete Quaife and drummer Mick Avory formed The Kinks — ‘four raw, working-class boys’, as Ray put it, who collided with success.

The film-making process is at an early stage, but I understand that Joe Penhall, who wrote the book for Sunny Afternoon using an original story by Ray, will write the screenplay. Dexter Fletcher has been approached to direct.

The story of the Kinks is to be turned into a movie. It will be based on the Olivier Award-winning musical Sunny Afternoon, which tracks how the Kinks collided with success

Fletcher has form, having directed Sunshine On Leith (a favourite movie of mine) which featured music by The Proclaimers. The actor-turned-film-maker also made the Eddie The Eagle picture, starring Taron Egerton and Hugh Jackman.

The songs Ray Davies wrote — hits including You Really Got Me, Dedicated Follower Of Fashion, Waterloo Sunset and the title track — tend to be rooted in the plight of the working man (and woman!). Davies enjoys thumbing his nose (extremely melodically) at high society.

Those numbers worked beautifully on stage at Hampstead Theatre, where Sunny Afternoon started three years ago before moving to the Harold Pinter Theatre. (It’s currently on tour, and this week has been at the Wolverhampton Grand.)

Looking through The Kinks back catalogue, I can see how any number of songs could be used to propel a narrative in a movie.

Add in the sibling disharmony between Ray and Dave, band infighting, the shock of dealing with success, and mismanagement (the usual woeful tale of rock ’n’ roll exploitation) and you’ve got a perfect film formula.

In addition, Davies is a fascinating character. Knighted in the New Year Honours, he is a brilliant songwriter and composer (his new album, Americana, is out tomorrow) and his best songs have stood the test of time — yet he shuns the limelight.

I remember being at the first preview of Sunny Afternoon. Ray, now 72, was there, and I could tell from his face that he was privately thrilled with how it was going. But there was also a cloud. He told me later: ‘I think it went well, but I can’t deal with the attention.’

Producers Francois Ivernel, Charles de Rosen and Sonia Friedman are producing the film and working on securing the story and music rights.

Casting is a long way off. John Dagleish and George Maguire both won Olivier awards for their portraits on stage of the Davies brothers, but it doesn’t necessarily follow that they will be offered the roles in the movie.

Sharon: I've maid it to my dream role

Sharon D. Clarke is in rehearsals for Caroline, Or Change, the musical by Tony Kushner and Jeanine Tesori. She plays the title character, Caroline Thibodeaux, who works as a maid for a Jewish family in Louisiana

Sharon D. Clarke can do it all: sing, dance and act. She’s a talented triple threat who’s able to go from one job to the next, whether it’s episodes of Holby City, a show at the National Theatre, a panto in Hackney, or cabaret in Leicester Square.

‘As long as I’m working, I’m happy,’ she told me.

‘There was one period in the Nineties where I didn’t work for six months. I was sat on the kitchen floor, looking at loans.

‘That’s the most time I’ve had out of work — and it’s just luck, because there are fantastic people who aren’t working,’ the actress (left) said as she took a break, along with the director Michael Longhurst, during rehearsals in London for Caroline, Or Change, the musical by Tony Kushner and Jeanine Tesori.

Clarke plays the title character, Caroline Thibodeaux, who works as a maid for a Jewish family in Louisiana.

Caroline scrubs and cleans, and cares for eight-year-old Noah, who has lost his mother but lives with his father and stepmother. She is everything to Noah — although she resents not being paid to look out for him.

‘She has four children of her own,’ Clarke explained.

‘A son who’s fighting in Vietnam — which is a place she can’t even find on the map.

Her teenage daughter is rebellious. Caroline’s the sole provider and she tries to provide on meagre funds. ‘Caroline can only give her children meat to eat if she misses the rent for a week. It’s touch and go,’ the actress adds with a sigh.

But it’s a great role — one Clarke has coveted ever since she saw Tonya Pinkins (who created the part at the Public Theater in New York) play it at the National a decade ago.

Longhurst — celebrated last year for his Amadeus on the Olivier stage at the National — has assembled a superb ensemble for the show, which will run from May 6 at the Minerva studio at Chichester Festival Theatre.

Longhurst invited Kushner (who had been working on another of his creations, Angels In America, at the NT) to chat with the Caroline company. He told them how the characters in Caroline are loosely based on how he and his brother were raised in Louisiana.

Kushner’s book is intoxicating — but Longhurst noted that Tesori’s score is like a central character, too.

‘There’s Gospel, klezmer, opera,’ said Longhurst, as he and Clarke discussed the musical variations.

During the rehearsal, I watched Clarke do a scene with Nicola Hughes, as another maid, and Angela Caesar — playing the Moon (a part she took ten years ago at the National).

The scene comes early in the show, and all three women sing.

As their voices soar and meld together, you just sit there and pray for the song to carry on, for ever.

Mark Rylance will grace Broadway later in the year, playing Philip of Spain in the production of Farinelli And The King

Watch out for...

Mark Rylance, our latest theatrical knight, who will grace Broadway later in the year, playing Philip of Spain in the Shakespeare’s Globe production of Farinelli And The King by Claire van Kampen.

The play — about how the heavenly voice of Farinelli, a castrato, helped cure the king of his insomnia — will run at the Belasco Theatre from December. 

Rylance (as the king, right) will feel at home there. A few seasons ago, he led the Globe’s productions of Twelfth Night and Richard III at the same theatre for a critically-acclaimed, sold-out run.

Encouraged by Steven Spielberg, Ms Van Kampen has been working on a screenplay of Farinelli, which she hopes will go into production next year. 

As far as I understand it, Spielberg will not be directing. The friendly advice was offered when Rylance — who is married to Van Kampen — worked with the director on back-to-back films Bridge Of Spies and The BFG.