The day Elvis played Suffolk: The creators of Birds Of A Feather unveil their latest flight of fancy

‘Actually, it was the worst place shall we think about,’ cuts in Marks. ‘I went there last year, so i do know what I’m talking about.’

Sixties’ sounds: New stage musical Save The Last Dance For Me sees two teenage girls travel to Lowestoft before they fall in love with GIs based on the nearby U.S. Air Force Base at Lakenheath

‘Oh, I wouldn’t accept as true with that,’ Gran protests. ‘However the clincher was it was on the subject of the large U.S. Air Force base at Lakenheath, which within the Sixties, when the tale is decided, was one of the crucial glamorous place in England.

‘All those dashing American airmen with their big cars, big wallets and flash ways were an irresistible magnet for young girls.’

The story that Marks and Gran devised was simple: two teenage sisters from Luton are within the Suffolk town for per week’s holiday from their dull assembly-line jobs. As they shelter from the rain at the promenade, a handsome GI invites them to a dance on the base. ‘Elvis would be playing,’ he tells them.

‘Oh yes? Pull the opposite one!’ they scoff.

‘It’s true,’ he tells them solemnly. ‘I swear on my mother’s eyesight.’

The girls are hooked. 

‘He forgets to say that the promised Elvis is an unknown drummer — one Elvis Simpkins,’ says Marks. ‘However the girls don’t care: suddenly they find themselves living the yankee dream.

‘Love blossoms, bringing with it parental objections, but with Sixties’ hits belting out every couple of minutes, everyone’s cares get drowned in music.’

Creative minds: The stage show is the newest offering from writing duo Maurice Gran and Laurence Marks

The show, which opens an extended nationwide tour in Bromley, Kent, tonight, is the newest in a protracted line of successful stage productions in keeping with pop songs, including We’ll Rock You, Mamma Mia, Jersey Boys and — another Sixties’ rock-fest written by Marks and Gran — Dreamboats And Petticoats.

The title, Save The Last Dance For Me, was successful for The Drifters in 1960 and was written by Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman, whose songs are featured within the show. Their hits include Teenager In Love, Viva Las Vegas, Suspicion and may’t Get Used To Losing You. Marks, 63, and Gran, 62, met after they both joined a youth club in North London on the age of ten. ‘i used to be the spotty one, he was the fat kid,’ says Marks.

Marks became a journalist, Gran a civil servant, and that they churned out scripts without much luck. Their break came after they were asked to write down for Frankie Howerd.

‘He was a pleasant man, but hard to work for,’ says Gran. ‘We were writing his radio series while looking to hold down our day jobs. The strain was so bad that I’d be sitting there choosing the music for my funeral.’

The pair wrote an ITV sitcom called Shine On Harvey Moon, which drew 17 million viewers and teamed Linda Robson with Pauline Quirke — a pairing such a success that they went directly to write Birds Of A Feather for them.

Classic sitcom: Maurice Gran and Laurence Marks wrote Birds Of A Feather, which teamed up Pauline Quirke, (L) Lesley Joseph (C) and Linda Robson

Goodnight Sweetheart — with Nicholas Lyndhurst as a time traveller — happened after Marks remarked that some buildings in London’s East End still showed wartime bomb damage, not like the fashionable edifices only a few yards away.

Recruited by a U.S. TV network to jot down a sitcom, they discovered every gag they submitted was analysed to death. It wasn’t their style.

‘We’d been given a fine apartment and many money,’ says Marks, ‘but that life wasn’t for us. The simplest light moment came when we’d been kept awake by the loud piano-playing round the corner.

‘The chief promised he’d have a word with the occupant.

‘Later, he told us: “Mr Stevie Wonder says he’s sorry and it won’t happen again.”’

Save The Last Dance For Me opens at Bromley Churchill Theatre tonight. Tickets 0844 871 7651. Other venues:  www.kenwright.com