A PRESTWICH actor is gearing up to tackle a very tricky subject in his next play.

For healthcare worker turned thespian Pete Gibson will take to the stage for a show all about death.

The 48 year old, of Simister, has a lead role in the black comedy Bleeding With Mother, which centres around a family gathered around their mother's coffin on the night before her funeral.

Now in rehearsals for the big show on the next bank holiday weekend, Pete said he thinks the old cliché of laughter being the best medicine is entirely right.

He said: "I think the play will encourage audiences to prepare for their passing and show more understanding to the bereaved.

"Bleeding with Mother is all about regrets, unresolved family squabbles and a lack of preparation for death.

"Our dearly departed mum has even been laid out to rest in a dress that should belong in My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding.

"As a country, we don't deal with death and grief very well and it seems it really is the final taboo."

Pete got interested in the stage by accident after visiting Prestwich Amateur Dramatic and Operatic Society with his daughter, and leaving with a part in their production of Blood Brothers.

He recently appeared in television drama My Jewish Auntie and has played characters as diverse as poet Siegfried Sassoon at the Lowry and writer Alan Bennett in a developing play staged by Bleeding with Mother producers Room 5064 in London.

Written by North West wordsmith Sarah Cassidy, Bleeding with Mother features classically funny nosey neighbours, an undiscovered treasure trove and even a séance.

Pete added: "Oddly enough, I think spiritualists perform a useful function because they are the only people who ever get grieving relatives to open up about death.

"The play is a real Northern tale of family, money and morality and my character Randall is facing an enormous mid-life crisis.

"He is worried about everything from his waning marriage to his thinning hair and he sees his mum's death as the final nail in his own coffin."

Room 5064 producer Gareth Kavanagh said: "Some of the characters in Bleeding with Mother would be quite at home in an Alan Bennett work.

"They are recognisable and certainly very funny.

"But beneath the folksy Northern-ness there is a sharp edge and a keen sense of morality and insight which people in Prestwich, Whitefield and Bury will recognise."

Bleeding with Mother premieres at Joshua Brooks Oxford Road on May 27 and at Nexus in Dale Street on May 28, both at 7.30pm.

Tickets cost £6. Visit fatsoma.com/room-5064-productions to buy them.