A NEW musical comedy inspired by a man’s experience of his mother-in-law’s dementia is coming to Sale Waterside Arts on Monday, October 20 for one night.

Set in a care home, Paradise Lodge, it is based on how writer and actor Steve Cooper cared for Dorothy during her final years of life.

Steve is known for his roles in Bafta winning BBC Drama In the Flesh, in Peter Kay’s Car Share and as a regular police officer in Coronation Street..

Appearing with him will be Sophie Osborne. They will play Eric and Kylie, a dysfunctional ukulele duo presenting their first gig at the Paradise Lodge Care Home.

Together, they take on nine roles. Both actors have cared for dementia sufferers.

Steve and his wife Tracey, looked after her mother, Dorothy, for four years before she went into care.

Sophie cared for her grandma for 10 years.

She said: “One in three people will develop dementia but we want to encourage people to think of the person behind the dementia,”

Told in a series of touching flashbacks and comic songs from the war years, Paradise Lodge transports the characters to a time when they had their lives before them, a time when they thought they could live forever.

* Paradise Lodge is at Sale Waterside Arts on Friday October 20. Tickets from 0161 912 5616 or on line.