Lorne Jackson meets a playwright who inadvertently broke his own rule in creating a timeless, much-loved female character.

Willy Russell doesn’t seem like the sort of chap who would stumble into a creative quagmire.

The playwright comes across as cheerful and chirpy. An uncomplicated fellow.

He’s a Willy, after all. And Willies are full of bonhomie.

First to buy a round, last to stagger from the pub. They storm into an awkward silence, and ring it like a bell.

Willies can’t be Williams, while it’s almost impossible to conceive of a Willy Shakespeare or a Willy Blake.

Yet back in the late 1970s, on the cusp of his greatest success, Willy Russell encountered a mighty stumbling block.

Two, to be precise.

The first block was a sullen slab of a theatre. A Lego dungeon, drained of colour.

Then arrived the block every author dreads. Writer’s Block – that misty mind-set that turns possibility into porridge.

Russell had been commissioned by the RSC to deliver a new play, which eventually evolved into Educating Rita, starring Julie Walters.

About a working class hairdresser from Liverpool, who broadens her horizons by studying English Literature at the Open University, Rita was funny, moving, smart, yet accessible.

Not surprisingly, it was a hit, spawning a successful movie, also starring Walters.

Russell is visiting Stratford this month, as part of the RSC’s 50th birthday celebrations, where he’ll take part in a reading of Rita.

However, the play did not enjoy an easy birth.

“Back then the RSC owned what is now the Donmar Warehouse, though it was just called the Warehouse, in those days,” says Russell.

“It was their experimental theatre in London, where they did all their new work.

“They’d commissioned me to do a play there, so I went and had a look at this black, brick Brechtian box of a theatre.

“And I remember thinking: ‘I don’t know what to write, but I certainly want to put some colour and warmth into these walls.’”

He genuinely didn’t have a clue what to create for the Lego dungeon.

“I never do. It’s the panic of my life, whenever I write a play. The same was true with Rita.

“I phoned up a couple of times, and tried to get out of it. Then I tried to send the RSC their money back.

“I sat for months, going into work every day, and nothing happening, nothing happening, nothing happening.

“Then, thank God, one afternoon in November ’79, Rita just walked onto my page.