Cliff's life set for the stage

Most people love him or hate him - but now you can't escape him. Sir Cliff Richard has been a housewives' heart-throb for decades thanks to his boyish good looks and constant stream of chart-topping hits.

Now the 62-year-old singer is set to capture the headlines yet again, this time on the West End stage in a month-long run of a musical dedicated to his life.

It will focus on all four decades of the career which has seen him sell more than 250 million records, star in some hugely popular films, lead a memorable singalong on Centre Court at Wimbledon and even come an honourable second in the Eurovision Song Contest.

But for producers of Cliff The Musical, finding a single actor to play pop's most enduring star proved something of a problem. His first chart hit was in 1958, his most recent in 2000. Even the most gifted musical actor would be hard-pressed to cram all of the Peter Pan of Pop's life into one performance.

Presented with this formidable challenge, there could be only one logical solution: rather than cast just one Cliff-a-like, the producers cast four. Cliff The Musical opens at the Prince of Wales Theatre next Wednesday after a hugely successful national tour. It was written by BBC Radio1 veteran Mike Read, who also takes a starring role as "Lord Cliff ".

The ennobled Cliff opens the show in 2020, busy planning his 80th birthday party and looking back over his career. This allows the production to go into a series of flashbacks and belt out 60 of the singer's greatest hits.

Producer Colin Rozee said: "It's non-stop Cliff from start to finish. We have worked very hard to reproduce the music as accurately as possible."

Playing Cliff in the late Fifties and early Sixties - the Summer Holiday years - is Ricky Aron. Early reports suggests the young actor belts out the much-loved back catalogue with aplomb.

Miles Guerrini plays Cliff in his middle years. Described as "assured and sophisticated", Mr Guerrini also does well as Cliff during the Seventies and Eighties. However, it is the most recent Cliff - Jimmy Jemain - who has so far been acclaimed as the finest, most uncannily Cliff-like performer of the bunch.

Mr Jemain spent four years working on a cruise ship perfecting his Cliff tribute act before scoring a runaway victory in the 1990 Stars In Their Eyes final. Since then, the former mechanic has continued to work as Britain's number one Cliff-a-like, performing across the country.

The 1996 Channel 4 documentary Starstruck showed the extent of Mr Jemain's dedication, with scenes of him doing his morning Cliff impressions in front of the mirror, and even talking to his children in character.

Sir Cliff - real name Harry Roger Webb - will not be at the musical's opening night but sent his blessing, and commented: "I wish I was in it myself ".