Two of the UK's greatest TV sitcom writers are preparing to bring their first play to Scarborough tonight. Maurice Gran talks to Viv Hardwick about Playing God and switching from the small screen to the stage.

MAURICE Gran jokes that he once needed £15,000 of therapy to wipe from his mind "the stream of invective that poured from the flabby lips of an actress" who told him and writing partner Laurence Marks that "you're not as f***ing funny as you think you are".

The two went on to gain 18 million viewers for hit series Shine On Harvey Moon - part of which was created with Ian La Frenais and Dick Clement in Los Angeles - "so there was nothing much that actress could tell me after that".

The TV sitcom gurus went on to pen Birds Of A Feather, Goodnight Sweetheart and The New Statesman, but Gran admits that they decided to create their first stage play, Playing God, after three years without TV work.

With a world premiere tonight at Scarborough's Stephen Joseph Theatre, he says: "TV has become a very serious business with the emphasis on the word business and the theatre suddenly seemed quite liberating and exciting. After working almost exclusively in TV for 25 years you suddenly think 'hang on a minute, aren't writers supposed to have good ideas, write them with enthusiasm, and then attempt to flog them, rather than go and ask some drink-sodden producer what he thinks? Do we spend our time appealing to him or, increasingly, her?

"Playing God is very vaguely based on something that someone once said and it's a play about a dying man who wants to fix everyone's life before he dies. I suppose all of us have an urge to find immortality in some way."

He agrees it's a dark comedy and feels that everything the pair of them write has a comedy dimension "because that's the way we look at the world".

"The drama that is steadfastly non-humorous is much less realistic to me than drama which embraces humour. I've also called it a psychological farce without doors."

Gran feels that Stephen Joseph artistic director Alan Ayckbourn was the perfect teacher for them to unlearn TV production and create a stageplay.

"We met him by chance and he liked our work on television and wondered why we hadn't done anything for the stage before. The encouragement he gave us was so much more valuable than any sort of anxiety we might have had by being in his presence. He's not an intimidating man and if he likes you then he's very giving and I know that his theatre see hundreds if not thousands of plays every year, so unless they can see something in you then it goes no further.

"He's so charming that it's not until ten minutes later you realise he's told you 'that's very good, so why don't you write it a different way?'

"There's no-one who knows more about this style of theatre. He could light the show, he could probably do the hair-dos and make the costumes as well. He just knows the theatre world."

On the subject of Marks and Gran sitcoms being squeezed off the TV, he says: "The main reason there's less comedy generally on the TV is because there's only so many hours in the day on the main channels and the explosion of soap and reality TV has been added to by the soapified drama - the Holbys and Heartbeats - taking up 30, 40 or 50 hours a year."

He also points out that although there are more channels, the number of programme funders has actually diminished because ITV, and to a lesser extent the BBC, now commissions network shows centrally rather than through regional companies.

Gran says: "We sold three series of The New Statesman to Yorkshire TV which you couldn't do today. But now, on both main channels, it's more or less the taste of one person and if that person doesn't like what you like then that's it. Alan Plater has gone public on this vociferously and that's why it's nice to work in the theatre where you write something for the love of writing and not be someone who can get in step with a TV producer's vision."

Playing God has been in development for five years in total and Gran admits that if a producer approaches him at the end of the run with an offer of TV cash for the project his answer will be: "if the choice is between a West End theatre and 8.30pm on a Monday night I wouldn't even consider television".

* Playing God runs at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, from tonight until September 3. Box Office: (01723) 370541.

* The two writers will be in conversation with Alan Ayckbourn at the SJT on July 2 at 5.30pm.

Published: 30/06/2005