Old Liverpool heroes: The Beatles

The Yellow House youth theatre says that the poor image of Merseyside is sapping the confidence of the area's youth - and is even a bad influence on them.

Bernie Greenough, 22, is one of the staff recruited to help in the project. He thinks Liverpool gets a raw deal compared to the country's other cities.

"Young people are even starting to live up to the negative images of Liverpool portrayed in the media. We've got just as good a sense of humour as people in other parts of the country, but if you can tell me a Scouse joke that doesn't involve crime, I'd love to hear it.

"There was a joke one of the papers the other day, which was: why does the river Mersey run through Liverpool? Because if it walked it'd get mugged.

"You could tell that joke about any river through any city in the country, but they keep getting told about Liverpool."

Butt of jokes

New Liverpool hero: Robbie Fowler

Other cities have problems similar to Liverpool's, he maintains, but somehow escape being the butt of jokes and lazy stereotypes.

"Manchester has its difficulties, but it must have the best PR in the world as it's always seen as a city on the up.

"Brookside seems to have had more impact on viewers than EastEnders or Coronation Street. No other street seems to have more murders and robberies.

"In the new ITV drama, Liverpool One, there's a young guy driving a Porsche who made the money to buy it through dealing crack cocaine.

"But there's local guys like Robbie Fowler who drive Porsches and have never been near crack cocaine in their lives. I work with 30-40 kids daily and they don't rob people, and they don't deal in drugs.

"People from outside become scared to come to Liverpool when they see things like that."

Planning stage show and film

Now Yellow House plans to make a stage show and film to extol the virtues of their city, and to build up young people's confidence by getting them involved in the productions.

Mr Geenough added: "Hopefully, we can redress the balance and get the message through to young people that there's a lot going on here.

"We're hoping to get local writers like Jimmy McGovern and Alan Bleasdale involved, and we'll decide what form the productions take when we get the groups together."