Forget Jacob Elordi — Cliff Richard's forgotten musical Heathcliff makes for the most unhinged Wuthering Heights adaptation

Unless you're off-grid (and we mean really off grid) Wuthering Heights will be all over your feed, your commute, and your conversations. Starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi as Cathy and Heathcliff, Emerald Fennell's adaptation of Emily Brontë's classic novel has already raised the eyebrows of every single person who has read the book. However, before the film is officially christened as the world's whackiest interpretation of the novel, you may want to draw your attention to Cliff Richard's forgotten Heathcliff musical...

The musical – yes musical – was dreamt up by Richards himself in 1996 starring the singer, with John Farrar composing the score and Tim Rice on lyrics. The book was written by Cliff Richard and Frank Dunlop.

The musical attempted to fill some gaps in Heathcliff's personal storyline by expanding parts of the plot implied by Brontë's novel, which were included chronologically. All of the dialogue in the show is from the novel, although some parts were transposed to work more smoothly in the musical form.

Onto the good stuff: the hair and makeup. First up, the shaggy mullet and orange hued fake tan brings a visual rarely seen outside of panto season. And he'd not holding back on costume either, with the full puffy white sleeves, and later Pirates of the Caribbean-esque outfit.

There's all the moody wailing, bemoaning, and tortured sighing you'd expect from the brooding protagonist, with a fairly toe-curling Yorkshire accent. You can catch some of it in action from the VHS archive clip on YouTube above.

Richards also released an album alongside the theatrical run called Songs from Heathcliff. A month prior to the show, he released the first single, A Misunderstood Man. The album consisted of just 10 songs from the musical, five of which featuring Olivia Newton-John in duets. Three more singles were also released: Had to Be (a duet with Olivia Newton-John), The Wedding (a duet with Helen Hobson who played Cathy in the musical) and Be with Me Always.

Perhaps somewhat unsurprisingly, the musical was not massively well received by critics, with one referring to it as "living dull". Excellent pun work there. But it was popular with Richard's fans. So much so that after its run across the UK it did a stint in London's West End, running at the Hammersmith Apollo.

An advertising campaign for the show used some of the critics' quotes, such as "This Wretched Show" and "Withering Rather Than Wuthering", to contrast the opposing views of critics and fans, which so far is much harsher than the more marmite confusion of Fennell's adaptation.

• Billy Elliot the Musical is officially heading back to London’s West End

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