'Everyone wants to know my true Kinky Boots story'

Everyone wants to know the "true story" of Kinky Boots, said the man who inspired the film that went on to become a hit musical.

When Steve Pateman's family-run shoe company W.J Brooks experienced financial trouble in the 1990s, he turned to making high-heeled women's shoes in men's sizes for transgender people, drag artists and anyone else who wanted to buy them.

The story of the factory in Earls Barton, Northamptonshire, was later made into a BBC documentary, a 2005 film and West End musical.

"It's all good for Northamptonshire, it's not my story anymore it's a Northampton story - it belongs to us all now. And it's good for the county which is what we need nowadays," Pateman said.

A revival of the stage adaptation will be performed at the London Coliseum and will star Strictly Come Dancing's Johannes Radebe and X-Factor winner Matt Cardle.

Pateman's business W.J Brookes was founded in 1889 and four generations of family worked there making high-quality shoes and boots.

The factory's decision to create a new product line featured in a BBC documentary, Trouble at the Top: The Kinky Boot Factory, which inspired Miramax Films to turn the story into a movie.

The film was later adapted to become a West End and Broadway musical, featuring music and lyrics by Cyndi Lauper, and the story moved a few miles away to be set in Northampton, in a fictional factory called Price & Son.

Pateman became Charlie Price, the character Cardle will play in the reworked version running from 17 March to 11 July at the London Coliseum.

Pateman said when he had the chance to meet the stars of the touring production "everyone wants to know the true story".

"They want to know how much of it is true, did you really go on a catwalk, was my character real?

"It's been good to be able to fill them in."

The next installment in his story might be the development of a television series, Pateman said.

"If that comes off, it will be amazing, it's just all down to finances," he said.

Radebe told the BBC's One Show he could not wait to make his West End debut as Lola, the drag queen who inspired Charlie Price's business pivot.

He said meeting Pateman in July 2025 was a bit "surreal".

"This man must be also loving life for his life to be told like that on stage.

"It was lovely to get a nod of approval from him.

"He just said you go out there and spread the word of this show because it's needed right now," Radebe added.

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