Educating Rita Educating Rita Educating Rita is a stage comedy by British playwright Willy Russell. It is a play for two actors set entirely in the office of an Open University lecturer. Commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company, "Educating Rita" premièred at The Warehouse, London, in June 1980 starring Julie Walters and Mark Kingston. The play was directed by Mike Ockrent. The plays follows the relationship between a 26-year-old Liverpudlian working class hairdresser and Frank, a middle-aged university lecturer, during the course of a year. In the play Frank has no surname, but when the film was made he became Dr. Frank
Willy Roper is too late. Only a few days after his release in May 1996, Arthur suffers a brain haemorrhage on the allotments, and dies the next day in hospital. Arthur's funeral is held and Mark is incensed to see Willy in attendance. He confronts Willy and ends up assaulting him. In November 1996 Willy is sentenced to three years in prison. Introduced in June 1995, Willy plays a key part in the long-running storyline that eventually leads to the exit of one of "EastEnders"' original characters, Arthur Fowler. The actor Michael Tudor Barnes was cast in the role for a six-month