BASED on the best-selling novel by Brighton author Peter James, The House on Cold Hill hits the stage with an all star cast. Jamie Walker speaks the the creator of the book, based on an experience he himself had, to find out what audiences can expect.

What can you tease about the premise of The House On Cold Hill?

The House On Cold Hill was very much inspired by what happened to myself and my former wife in 1988.

It’s about a couple: Ollie [Joe McFadden] - who made a very successful business in internet web design and he’s sold it, which is what gives him the money to buy the house - and his wife Caro [Rita Simons], who is a lawyer.

They’ve been townies all their lives and they decide to follow the dream so they buy this big old wreck in the country, moving to it with the idea that it’s going to be their forever home and they’re going to spend the next ten years restoring it.

Then they find out that they may not the only people living in it.

What’s in store for audiences when they come see the show?

It’s a very modern ghost story that brings in Facebook and Alexa.

We’ve tried to become really modern with the whole idea that ghosts aren’t necessarily stuck in Victorian Gothic times so the ghosts in the play can use computers, as they did in the book.

Audiences are in for lots of shocks and twists and turns and above all else The House On Cold Hill is a thriller so I hope they’ll be getting some nice scares along the way along with those twists and turns in the story.

How hands-on are you when it comes to stage adaptations of your work?

What I love about working with [producer] Joshua Andrews and [writer] Shaun McKenna is how we all respect each other’s views and opinions.

I’m very hands-on but I know my limitations.

I’m an author and I write novels.

It’s a very different process making something work on the stage and for me Shaun is a magician.

I’m astonished at his vision because transposing a book into a play is really tough.

You have to cut down on the characters enormously.

I’ll have maybe 20 or 30 characters in a novel but it’s not economical to have more than between five and nine characters in a touring stage play.

Shaun has to condense those and also the locations because the House On Cold Hill novel moves around between a graveyard, a vicarage, a school, Brighton and Sussex, whereas with the play we’re confined to the interior of a house.

And you’ve mentioned before that the story is based on the house you lived in yourself.

Yes I lived in the house for ten years.

I remember the day we first moved in and my then mother-in-law was visiting.

She had a very open minded side to her.

The day we moved in I was standing with her and there was a long passageway to walk through to get to the kitchen.

I saw a shadow flick across it and she said “did you see that?” and I knew she’d seen something.

Neither me or my wife had ever lived in the countryside before so I didn’t tell her straight away, because I didn’t want her to be freaked out on day one.

The next day my wife went to work and I was in my office and went downstairs and there were these pins of light in the air.

I thought it was just sunlight coming through a door or window but then I turned to look back and they’d gone.

Later in the week I was walking my dog and a man came up to me and asked how I was getting on with the grey lady.

He said he used to house sit for the old owners and that he saw a woman with a grey face come out the wall and came towards him.

Was the supernatural something you already believed in?

I had an interest in it before.

My first successful hit was a supernatural thriller [Possession, 1987] that was the book that enabled me to buy this house.

When we bought the house the person who sold it to us said we had three ghosts – we actually found out there were four.

What do Joe McFadden and Rita Simons bring to the lead roles?

What’s really important with any cast, as with characters on the pages of a book, is that the audiences in the theatre and the readers of the book like them and connect with them - even with the bad people because the best villains are those we care about.

Joe and Rita both have a great warmth about them.

Instantly audiences will go “I like these people” and then they’ll be going “Oh no, they’re in terrible danger”.

It’s the same with Ollie and Caro’s daughter Jade [Persephone Swales-Dawson], who is this sweet kid.

The more you care about somebody the more you fear for them.

How excited are you to be bringing the show to Brighton?

I love the Theatre Royal.

When I was a kid my parents had seats every Thursday night.

I would watch the curtain and dream of having a show up there that I’d written.

So when my first play came on it was a dream come true.

I love the play and I think the team have done a fantastic job.

It’s scary but there are plenty of modern elements to it.

I will try and visit Brighton as many times as I can when it’s on because I just love the theatre.

I also hear that a women has been seen in the empty seats at times, which would be perfect for the theme of the show.

So why should people come and see this show?

If you want to have a really good, fun, evening, with some great thrills and real scares then this is the show.

It’s the kind of show that everyone who likes my books will have a good time at.

It will be a fun and memorable evening.

There is a great cast, some great effects and I think it will grip everyone.

The House on Cold Hill runs at Theatre Royal, Brighton from Monday, March 4 to Saturday, March 9.

For tickets and more information visit https://www.atgtickets.com/venues/theatre-royal-brighton/