High Wycombe’s James Corden is set to return to the West End in a brand-new play following his move back across the pond and amid plans to build an £8 million mansion on the Buckinghamshire border.

The 45-year-old, who grew up in Hazlemere, announced his move back to the UK last spring and secured planning permission to build a six-bedroom mega-mansion in Henley-upon-Thames in September 2023.

Although Corden’s relocation from the US followed his departure as host of The Late Late Show, don’t think the dad-of-three is sitting around twiddling his thumbs now that he’s back home.

To the contrary, he has recently announced plans to return to London’s West End in brand-new political drama The Constituent, written by Oliver award-winning playwright Joe Penhall and premiering in the Old Vic Theatre in June.

Corden will play an “ex-serviceman whose life is in freefall” in the new production opposite Motherland actress Anna Maxwell Martin, who will play a hard-working backbench MP whose “ideals of public office” are tested by the chaos of Corden’s character.

The play will be directed by Old Vic artistic producer Matthew Warchus and reportedly aims to “deconstruct politics, panic alarms and the conflict between public service and personal safety”.

Penhall said he had been inspired to write it after becoming dually “fascinated and appalled by the growing antipathy towards elected politicians”.

James Corden, who is perhaps best known on his home turf as co-creator and star of Gavin and Stacey, described his adolescence in Wycombe as “blissfully ordinary” in his 2011 biography, adding that he continues to have “such an affection for it as a place”.

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He went to Park Middle School in Hazlemere and Holmer Green Upper School before honing his craft at the Jackie Palmer Stage School alongside fellow big names Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Eddie Redmayne.

He returned to Wycombe in 2014 to open Jackie Palmer’s Bridge Street Studios, where he described his experience there as “the single best part of my week”.

After graduating, the 45-year-old has gone on to have an impressive and multi-faceted career in the arts, with Tony, BAFTA and Emmy awards to his name.

After the success of Gavin and Stacey, he went on to star in both the screen and stage productions of Alan Bennett’s The History Boys, and he received critical acclaim for starring in the National Theatre, West End and Broadway runs of One Man, Two Guvnors, a slapstick version of Carlo Goldoni’s 18th century comedy.

The Constituent will play at The Old Vic from June 13 to August 10. Tickets are available to buy here now.