Kinky adventures and mishaps of her friends and even her own have all gone into former Brookside actress and Celebrity Big Brother contestant Claire Sweeney’s first co-written theatre show.

The actress, 43, has toured the country in some of the biggest stage shows – including Chicago, Guys and Dolls and Educating Rita – and it was on the set of another that she was encouraged to pick up a pen.

Claire told News Shopper: “I was doing a touring show called Tell Me on a Sunday and it was kind of a mirror image of my life at the time.

“I was telling my producer about funny things that have happened and he just said to me ‘Claire you have got to start writing these things down’.

“With the help of my friend Mandy (Muden) we wrote Sex in Suburbia.”

The show promises to be a great night out, with confessional tales brought to life in the form of a late-night radio phone-in complete with party anthems like I’m Every Woman and I Want to Break Free.

Audience members are even invited to share their own personal stories on stage, with the chance to win Ann Summers goodie bags.

News Shopper:



“It’s not raunchy,” Claire said. “It’s witty and funny and everything is done with a nudge and a wink.”

“There is a guy who wants to do swinging and he manages to persuade his wife and it is a case of being careful what you wish for.

“His wife loves it and he gets rejected and left out and in the end she ends up leaving him. It is quite a funny story, really.”

So this is based on her own experience, right?

“No, I didn’t go swinging. This is someone Mandy knew,” said Claire. “We get seeds of stories or things that happened to people and we elaborate on it.”

The show has been well-received so far and it is a different feeling for Claire being on stage performing her own work.

She said: “I don’t feel protected by great writing – Willy Russell and John Godber and people like this - so going out and doing my own and Mandy’s stuff is terrifying.

“It’s all the more rewarding when you see other actors getting laughs.”

Sex in Suburbia is at The Orchard Theatre in Dartford on April 11 and 12, at Fairfield Halls in Croydon on May 1 and The Churchill Theatre in Bromley on May 9.