Viv Hardwick talks to Joseph Alessi about his part in playing comedy legend, although he feels he really isn't Eric Morecambe at all. The award-winning actor actually sees himself as more like Mussolini.

ERIC Morecambe is probably Britain's top comedy icon, so the chance to play a role based on the great comic makes actor Joseph Alessi the envy of any male who ever fancied wearing sock suspenders while singing Bring Me Sunshine.

Any interviewer finds themselves asking: "What's it like playing Eric Morecambe?"

Alessi is quite an awkward interview, partly because he's "legally" discussing the tour of The Play What I Wrote to Darlington and Newcastle on a mobile phone while collecting a friend from Heathrow Airport.

He also has to explain that the format is actually three plays. The audience watches a comedy duo where one half wants to perform an awful French Revolution piece called A Tight Squeeze For The Scarlet Pimple while the other character substitutes his own script for a celebration of Eric and Ernie.

So Alessi is a little conspiratorial with the reply: "I have to correct you there about me playing Eric Morecambe. A lot of people come along and think it's going to be a Morecambe and Wise tribute and they are quite shocked. So we get a first five minutes where we used to think 'why isn't anyone laughing?' before you realise people are quite confused.

"Then everyone accepts it for what it is and then the whole thing becomes hilarious I'm happy to say.

"What my character is like is playing the spirit of Eric Morecambe and that's an absolute pleasure because a lot of the comedy was written by Eddie Braben who was Eric and Ernie's principal writer for many years.

"Every now and then we have a little gesture of Eric and Ernie and the audience instantly recognise what we're doing. People seem to know their material almost by osmosis and my own interest in them goes beyond being a fan because producers today would kill their mothers to get audience figures in the tens of millions like Morecambe and Wise. Those kind of millions are unheard of these days. "I think we completely win people over because they recognise the gentler comedy that bathes you in the wonderful nostalgia of Dad's Army and a time when you were younger and felt safer.

"I don't get that same recognition with Hancock for example because that was before my time and his comedy is alien to me. When I watch the comedy programmes of the 1970s it's like eating a lovely, warm bowl of porridge... it's fantastic."

Alessi was offered the tour as a result of starring with Ben Keaton and Toby Sedgwick in the Olivier award-winning West End hit Animal Crackers, a musical about the Marx Brothers. Alessi was trouble-making Chico and Keaton was comedic Groucho. This time around Alessi is the "one with the glasses" although he admits being shorter than Keaton as Ernie and more of a "short, fat hairy legs build".

"I've got to be honest. I look more like Benito Mussolini. I'm actually shorter than Ben. But this play can't fail because every joke is a gem." Sedgwick joins the fray as the legendary "Not now Arthur" Tolcher, who never used to get beyond the opening notes of a harmonica solo, and other essential characters.

Then, of course, there are the "special mystery guest" celebrities. Ewan McGregor, Joanne Lumley, Dawn French, Kylie Minogue, Ian McKellen, Sting and Roger Moore are just a few of the famous names who have appeared in the production which has also managed to find interest on Broadway.

"There have been so many celebrities that I've lost count, but it's far more nerve-wracking for them than for us. We can do this play with our eyes shut, walking backwards with one hand tied behind our backs. But you can see the fear in the eyes of the poor celebs, they are there to be the straight man or woman and have the piss taken out of them in a gentle way. As a result everyone is absolutely charming and we've not had one awkward guest so far.

"A lot of them haven't done theatre for years and they enjoy themselves so much they agree to come back."

In the West End the show's producers managed to find a different celebrity for each show but on tour the situation is more difficult and Alessi says that sometimes the same famous face can feature all week.

"Sometimes we use local celebrities. Up in Manchester we used William Roache who plays Ken Barlow which was bizarre because he doesn't do a lot of work outside Coronation Street and is a very private person.

"That was odd for me because I wasn't acting with Bill Roach, I was acting with Ken Barlow. He was a lovely, self-effacing man as well.

"We don't know who'll we'll be getting for Darlington and Newcastle until a few hours before. What we tend to do on the night is get theatre staff to start wandering around the foyer whispering 'it's Kylie' and that really gets people going."

* The Play What I Wrote runs at Darlington's Civic next week, Monday to Saturday. Box Office: (01325) 467071. Having sold out Newcastle's Theatre Royal two years ago, the play returns to the venue for the week of March 8-13. Box Office: 0870 905 506

Published: 05/02/2004