BOLTON actor Paul Nicholls will take centre stage later this year in a production of The Shawshank Redemption.

It is coming to The Lowry, Salford Quays, in September as part of a UK tour.

Nicholls, who grew up in Smithills, is starring as Andy Dufresne, a banker handed a double life sentence for the brutal murder of his wife and her lover, who finds himself incarcerated in the notorious Shawshank penitentiary.

Unflinching in his protests of innocence, Andy strikes up an unlikely friendship with the prison fixer Red, played by Ben Onwukwe, and together find themselves facing off against the corrupt Warden Stammas, played by Jack Ellis.

Nicholls is best known for his role as heart throb Joe Wicks in EastEnders, and has since appeared in television shows including Grantchester, Death in Paradise and The C Word, and made his West End debut in 2000.

Directed by award-winning Broadway director David Esbjornson, the show is an adaption of Stephen King’s novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, which was made into the 1994 Oscar Award winning film The Shawshank Redemption starring Tim Robbins as Andy Dufresne and Morgan Freeman as Red.

The show will run from September 5 to 10.