Dale's cup

The actor talks to VIV HARDWICK about his new play and how his brother Philip joined the TV soap as a scriptwriter THE 40th anniversary of England's famous World Cup win, and the forthcoming football contest in Germany, has inspired Emmerdale actor Dale Meeks, from South Shields, to create a new comedy for his local theatre just as he quits the long-running ITV soap.

Meeks has taken on the role of co-writer, with Iain Cunningham, because his Emmerdale departure as fishmonger Simon Meredith doesn't happen until the end of the summer. But he's determined that the stage company, Boyle Yer Stotts, which he helped to form in his old home town, gains all his attention for the April 5-7 run of Worlds Apart at the Customs House, South Shields.

On the decision to write the play he says: "This season, certainly, we're the first out of the starting blocks. To be honest I can't count too many World Cup plays at all apart from An Evening With Gary Lineker, and that's something like 12 years ago.

"The interesting thing is that we wanted to do the play for the last World Cup in Japan and South Korea and when it was looking to be far too difficult we thought 'what could be more perfect than the 2006 in Germany'. We kept the title Worlds Apart because of the culture difference with Japan, which is rather alien to your average member of the North-East of England. We'd heard that Japan had a Third Reich bar which was going to be interesting to explore, but it's so much more right to do it now."

Meeks himself admits that he falls into the category of people who don't think that football is the be all and end all but his collaborator Iain Cunningham is the big fan. "As an actor I can appreciate the spectacle and I do get swept along with World Cup fever, but this really is a play for everyone that just happens to be set around the World Cup."

The actor/playwright is aware that hundreds of fans will be travelling to Germany to support England and based the comedy play on a group of Sunday League footballers who decide to follow their country's fortunes.

He says: "Some of the plot is a sitcom situation using a Fathers' Waiting Room at the local hospital but there's flashbacks, fantasy, dance sequences and everything from 'at home in Newcastle' to the airport, trains and stadiums. We even go back to World War One. It's difficult not to mention the war without offending anyone but basically the manager of the Sunday League football team (played by Customs House panto dame in residence Bob Stott) is from the generation which still has prejudices. He's the Basil Fawlty of the piece who acts out what everyone is thinking."

On missing out on a stage appearance in Worlds Apart, Meeks says: "I've still got my commitments to Emmerdale so I can't actually be in the show. It is a frustration because I think it's a cracking script but I'm sure the cast will do it justice. We are testing the five players and the director (Jackie Fielding) because it's easy for us to say in the script 'the lads wander round the huge crowded stadium enjoying the plethora of international flags and music' but someone has to make it happen."

This is Meeks' eighth play with the Boyle Yer Stotts company since 1999. Asked to explain the BYS title, the actor declines to give too much detail apart from admitting it is an unusual expression known to few.

He says that he enjoys working with a group of fellow North-East actors on creating the plays, but his two years with Emmerdale have put plans on hold until now.

"I'm leaving Emmerdale in the summer. I signed a six month contract for this year and they decided my character had gone as far as he could and they'd like to give him a good sending off. It's not a firing or me quitting, it's just a contract reaching its end. Things are being left open in case I might return. So this is a 'drive off into the sunset' closing scene. I'm going to be on the TV screens until the end of summer so there's a long, long time yet. So I'm not happy about references to me being the 'ex-Emmerdale actor' running in the media when I've got four or five months work yet, " he says.

Meeks is currently in discussion about some other exciting projects involving television and theatre being offered in London.

"I think the important thing about me is that I'd got quite an eclectic cv before I joined while quite a lot of actors join a soap as virtually their first job and stay there for eight years. That doesn't look particularly good to the producers of other shows."

Meeks, 30, also reveals that his older brother, Philip, 35, joined Leeds-based Emmerdale as a scriptwriter just before he made the decision to leave.

"That's probably why my contract came to its end. It was probably his idea, " he jokes.

"Strangely when he got the job nobody knew we were brothers because the writing side has nothing to do with the acting, a bit like the Sharks and the Jets in West Side Story. We stand around on street corners being vaguely suspicious of each other. I have actually spoken some words written by my brother and it's very nerve-racking in case he said 'you missed out an 'and' there'. There's that extra jittery factor in case you get that angry phone call."

Worlds Apart runs at The Customs House, South Shields, from Wednesday until Friday. Box Office: 0191-4541234