CISSIE and Ada, the comic characters created by Les Dawson and Roy Barraclough, only appeared once live on stage – during a summer season that Dawson did at The Grand Theatre in Blackpool.

This summer, they returned to the same venue for a natter over the garden fence in Ooh, Have You Heard, a new play by Graham Warrener in collaboration with original Cissie and Ada scriptwriter Terry Ravenscroft. Only this time Eric Potts was filling the shoes of the late Les Dawson with Steve Nallon, best known for his Mrs Thatcher impersonation, by his side.

“That was lovely because it was the only venue Cissie and Ada ever appeared live. While we were there, I managed to pop up the coast and visit Les’ grave,” says Potts.

Now the play is on tour, playing at Darlington Civic Theatre tonight and tomorrow.

Potts, who played baker Diggory Compton in Coronation Street, never met Dawson in real-life, although he did once play his “comedy piano” – the one the comedian played badly – by mistake. “I was appearing at the Theatre Royal, in Plymouth, and his piano was delivered a couple of months early for his pantomime. I was playing it and someone told me whose piano it was.”

Although Potts was a Corrie regular, it was after Barraclough, who played Alec Gilroy, had left the ITV soap.

But he did work with the actor on the show in one of the four other characters he played on the cobbles before Diggory.

“My first job after leaving college was playing Bet Lynch’s solicitor when she was going to divorce Alec, so I met Roy then,” recalls Potts.

Barraclough hasn’t been involved with the stage play although he and Dawson’s family have given their approval. Potts heard about a try-out for the play through a friend and sent his details to the production company. He later received a phone call asking if he’d like to play Dawson.

The first half of the play is set at the BBC, exploring the relationships between Dawson, Barraclough and writer Terry Ravenscroft (played by another former Corrie star Steven Arnold, who played Ashley Peacock). Dawson and Ravenscroft had what Potts tactfully calls “a touch and go relationship”.

The second half is set in Lytham St Annes – “for reasons which become apparent”, says Potts mysteriously. Woven into the play are recreations of the Cissie and Ada sketches.

Potts didn’t want to do a straight impersonation of Dawson. “We try to get accuracy in the Cissie and Ada sketches, but doing an outand- out impersonation of Les Dawson would be wrong,” he says. “I try to get the essence of him. The voice and the delivery are so iconic that I’ve tried to capture that.

“Both Les doing stand-up and, of course, lots of the Cissie and Ada sketches are still on YouTube, so we’ve been able to get the posture and feel of the characters from that.

They were constantly trying to make each other laugh during filming so we have to do that too."

  • Cissie & Ada: Darlington Civic Theatre, tonight and tomorrow.

Box office 01325-486555 and online at darlingtoncivic.co.uk