Two of television's top cops come together in tonight's premiere of Richard Bean's marital comedy Honeymoon Suite, writes Tamzin Hindmarc

COLIN Tarrant and Stephanie Turner will be best remembered by many for the impact their characters once made on our small screens.

Colin, a former star of The Bill, spent 12 years sleuthing at Sun Hill police station in the role of Inspector Andrew Munroe, while Stephanie made her name as Inspector Jean Darblay in the BBC's police show Juliet Bravo.

Tonight, the pair will be joining forces as one of three couples. Stephanie plays Marfleet, a Labour politician who has been made a baroness, and Colin is Whitchell, a hotelier who lives a tramp-like existence.The plot charts the progress of the couple over 50 years, from their honeymoon night in a hotel bedroom to a meeting in the same bedroom when they are both aged 67.

As the pair's relationship matures, the playwright encourages the audience to address the question: What happens when youthful passion fades?

Colin says: "Having read Virginia Woolf, I remember saying I wanted to read plays which would devote as much attention to the working class, my class, as she did to her upper middle class.

"Richard is a wonderful writer and I think he evokes the rhythms of working-class speech and preoccupations brilliantly. I'm delighted he is becoming one of our foremost playwrights.

"I think this is an incredibly moving play, which I hope we're going to get right. It's a beautiful piece of writing in which three couples play the same pair from newlyweds to middle-aged to when they are older."

Speaking about his own character, he adds: "He's an eccentric who lives on his own in this hotel, and something has happened to cause a split between himself and his wife and made him live a very simple and solitary existence."

He said rehearsals have been emotional for them both, evoking fond memories of their connections with the round early on in their careers.

Colin, originally from Derby, was part of one-time artistic director and theatre co-founder Peter Cheeseman's company during the 1970s,

He says: "I knew of Peter's fantastic work and made a beeline for his theatre, especially given my background at the time as an actor from the North-East Midlands.

"I was interested in his mixture of classical and new plays and the documentaries. I have very happy memories of being directed by Peter in King Lear and The Tempest, and the revival of The Knotty in the late-1970s as well as a few others.

"Peter never pulled his punches and that was the great thing about him."

Stephanie, meanwhile, was taught by Stephen Joseph, the founder of the New Vic's sister theatre in the round at Scarborough.

She recalls: "As students, we use to come to Stoke-on-Trent an awful lot where he was working with Peter Cheeseman."

Honeymoon Suite can be seen at the New Vic Theatre in Basford from tonight until Saturday, April 25. Tickets cost from £8.50 to £17.50. Call the box office on 01782 717962.