Mark Benton as Francis, the Director of the play. In July 2012, it was announced that Benton would star as Edna Turnblad in the 2013 UK tour of "Hairspray the Musical", starting in February 2013 and finishing in September 2013. In 2015 Benton appeared as Police Constable Walt Everett in the BBC daytime series "Father Brown", episode 3.12 "The Standing Stones". He also appeared as Les in the "La Couchette", the first episode of the second series of anthology series "Inside No. 9". In 2015, Benton presented the BBC One daytime game show "The Edge" for its first series, being replaced by
Passion (musical) the shortest-running musical ever to win the Tony Award for Best Musical. The show opened in the West End, with significant musical and script revisions, at the Queen's Theatre in 1996. Directed by Jeremy Sams, the cast featured Michael Ball as Giorgio, Helen Hobson as Clara, and Maria Friedman as Fosca (Friedman had previously appeared in several Sondheim musicals in the UK). The production ran for 232 performances. A recording was later made of the show performed in concert, with nearly all of the original London cast recreating their roles and preserving the musical changes from the earlier production. A