STOCKTON Heath playwright Tim Firth is again teaming up with Gary Barlow for a Take That musical.

The production called The Band, which will have its premiere at Manchester Opera House from September 8 to 30, has been written by former Stockton Heath Primary School pupil Tim.

Gary and Tim previously collaborated on The Girls, which also opened in Manchester.

It was a musical version of Tim’s hit story about a WI group in a small Yorkshire village who stripped off for a now famous calendar to raise funds in memory of one of their husbands who died of leukaemia.

But Gary and Tim have actually been friends for more than 25 years after meeting by chance through a TV show called Nationwide which ran a song for Christmas competition.

In a 2015 interview for The Girls, Tim told us: “One of the acts I was a judge on was a young 16-year-old from Frodsham called Gary Barlow.

“It turned out he was born 20ft from where I was born so we kept in touch. It was one of those weird coincidences that we were brought together through music.”

Meanwhile, the stars of stars of The Band were announced on the final of BBC talent show Let it Shine on Saturday night.

Five to Five, made up of AJ Bentley, Curtis Johns, Nick Carlsberg, Sario Solomon and Yazdan Qafouri, were voted as the winners of Gary Barlow’s talent search after a sing off with rival boybands Nightfall and Drive.

Gary also announced that the new musical will be based on the music of his band Take That rather than their lives.

They have chosen Manchester for the premiere as that is where the band formed in 1990.

Take That, the most successful boy band in chart history, have 12 number one singles from seven number one albums and have sold more than 45million records worldwide.

The Official Charts Company also listed four of their albums among the best-selling records of the millennium, alongside the likes of Adele, Coldplay and Rihanna.

Take That’s new album, Wonderland, is due out on March 17 which is set to be followed by a UK arena tour.

They will also be releasing a greatest hits album this year to commemorate the band’s 25th anniversary

n Tickets for The Band will be on sale at 12pm on April 3 from thebandmusical.com