TV actor Daniel Casey is returning to the region to star in a comedy premiere.

Daniel, 29, who is about to start filming a sixth series of ITV's Midsomer Murders as Detective Sergeant Troy, opens in The Safari Party, by Tim Firth, at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, North Yorkshire, tonight.

It is his first play since his days with Stockton Youth Theatre.

Daniel - the son of TV journalist and Dales Diary presenter Luke Casey - joined the theatre as a 14-year-old when he heard it was short of boys for a production of Bugsy Malone.

He was spotted when the youth group's play, Dead Fish, won an Edinburgh Fringe award.

He said: "John Nettles (Daniel's co-star in Midsomer Murders) encouraged me by saying I would really enjoy my time in Scarborough.

"I really wanted to do this play when I discovered my character's name was Daniel and he had a brother called Adam, because I really do have a 32-year-old brother called Adam.

"There's even a place called Foxhill involved, and my family have always lived next to Fox Covert. I am a great believer in fate and I asked the writer Tim Firth if I had known him in another life."

Daniel's big TV break came with North-East BBC drama Our Friends In The North. He went on to appear in The Bill, A Touch of Frost, The Grand and Catherine Cookson mini-series The Wingless Bird.

The west London-based Boro supporter is now a familiar face and is awaiting the arrival of a Midsomer Murders tape that is being shown in Japan.

"I can't wait to see myself talking in Japanese. It was a language I thought I would never master," he said.

The Safari Party, a comedy based on courses of a meal being taken at different houses, runs until May 18. The box office can be contacted on (01723) 370541.