Speedo Mick musical celebrates the Scouse Stomper at Liverpool's Royal Court

At the beginning of his original season in charge at Goodison, manager David Moyes dubbed Everton ‘the People’s Club’ and the name almost immediately stuck.

Meanwhile the Royal Court has long been thought of as the ‘people’s theatre’ here in Liverpool.

So perhaps it’s not surprising that the two should come together for a new theatrical production which opens at the Art Deco landmark next week.

In fact, Speedo Mick – the Musical (which follows hard-ish on the heels of Shankly crowd-pleaser Red or Dead) is one of two new Blue-inspired productions at the Court in 2025, with The Legend of Rooney’s Ring due to be staged later this summer.

With a script by John Fay and a score from Chumbawamba’s Boff Whalley, who previously penned the songs for Homebaked the Musical, Speedo Mick tells the story of the eponymous trunk-wearing fundraiser through the highs, and lows, of his eventful life.

Paul Duckworth takes on titular hero duties in snug-fitting swimwear, and after appearing in Red or Dead it’s a chance for the staunch Evertonian to play a fellow Blue.

Even more so given he’s been juggling Speedo Mick rehearsals with preparing to revisit the one-man tour-de-force that is Beating Berlusconi which he’s performing this weekend at the Dome and the Epstein Theatre, channelling 36 characters in two crazy physical hours.

"It’s the last time I’m ever doing it,” he says firmly of Berlusconi. “I’m 54 in June. The first time I did it was in 2009 and the last time was 2015, and this is 2025. That's three decades.

“There are a few good reasons why I’m doing it – it’s a goodbye and thank you to John (Graham Davies) the writer, and also Mark (Radley) whose story it was about.

“Funnily enough, loads of football widows have come to see it over the years, and they’re the ones who have emailed us and said ‘what a fantastic story. I was coming expecting football and I got much more than football’. It’s not about football; it’s just based around that.”

Speedo Mick is also about a lot more than football, although of course Everton plays a huge part in Michael ‘Mick’ Cullen’s story – the club’s name and badge emblazoned proudly on his smalls as he pounded the highways and byways of Britain and raised more than £1million for good causes in the process.

And while there are rousing numbers, performed by the actor-muso company under the keen direction of Conrad Nelson, and big laughs in Fay’s script, it also doesn’t shy away from some of the darker moments of his life including depression, addiction and homelessness.

“What I’m looking forward to most is the fact that there’s going to be another conversation about addiction,” Cullen says of the production. “And that’s going to be on the Royal Court theatre stage, people are going to be talking about that.”

Above: Paul Duckworth as 'Speedo Mick' Cullen in rehearsals with fellow cast. Photo by Clara Mbirimi.

The 60-year-old has learned from personal experience how important it is to talk about these issues, and while his huge fundraising challenges – swimming the Channel, walking from John O’Groats to Land’s End – have buoyed him and given him a sense of purpose, it hasn’t all been plain sailing.

Despite appearing cheery on the road, even in bitter weather, after his last 1,000-mile walk, he reveals he suffered a terrible period of depression which he has only recently emerged from.

“I was already running on empty at the beginning,” he explains, “and there was a voice in my head saying ‘don’t do it, don’t do it’, but I thought doing it might put something in the tank – by doing the good stuff.

“Because that’s what happens. You fill yourself up when you’re doing that good stuff. But when you’re doing challenges like that, 1,000 miles in the dead of winter, it just takes out, it doesn’t put anything in.

“I didn’t recognise that then because I just carried on and did it. It took the thrill away for me.”

He add: “I’m on it now, only because I’ve got my head straight and have shown myself the compassion and the love that I’d walk 1,000 miles to show some total stranger.

"And that’s what I was doing, I was giving it to everybody else and my own relationship with myself broke down and it was horrible, it was terrible. I didn’t think there was any way out of that to be honest.”

A vocal advocate for good mental health, Cullen is now in the middle of training to be a counsellor himself.

“I love it,” he says. “I think I’ll be great at it as well. I really understand it and the components you need to have about you to be a good counsellor.”

Above and top: Paul Duckworth and Mick Cullen in the Royal Court rehearsal rooms

One conscious decision he has made though is not to get back into the trunks that gave him his moniker.

So, while he’ll be on hand at the Royal Court throughout the musical’s run to fundraise for his Speedo Mick Foundation - which gives grants to grassroots charities and organisations supporting mental health, disadvantaged young people and the homeless, with £500,000 distributed so far - he’ll be remaining fully clothed.

Meanwhile Duckworth has only recently been baptised in the way of the briefest of swimwear and admits appreciating having Cullen on hand to give him some advice.

“Putting my Speedos on for the first time, you were here and I went, give him a shout to come in,” he reminds the famous fundraiser. “I thought it was only fair that you should be the first person to shock!

"Nobody else had seen them. I was asking you about yours, because I was looking at the wide fitting on the side – I think they were 7cms or 8cms, and I was thinking ‘yeah, as long as they’re not dead skimpy!”

While Duckworth is particularly delighted “to be playing an Evertonian”, Cullen himself is looking forward to his family being able to see the show.

“One of my sons has got a caf, and he came out of the door and there was a massive sign with just my arse on it and saying 'Speedo Mick the Musical',” he chuckles.

“He took a photo and sent it to me, and I put it up on Facebook saying – to all my children - your dad’s arse is all over the gaff!’”

Speedo Mick – The Musical is at Liverpool’s Royal Court from May 30 to July 5. Tickets HERE