SOME of the region's best known theatrical names make a welcome return to the stage this month with a hilarious comedy set in the early days of television.

David Williams, Eileen Nichols and Maurice McCarthy, last performed as the English Lakes Touring Company in Alan Ayckbourn’s A Chorus of Disapproval, which toured Cumbria and north Lancashire in 2003.

Prior to that they put together a Millennium review which also toured to Sri Lanka.

And, of course, they trod many a board as part of Kendal's legendary Brewery Players.

Now though, they're back, bubbling with enthusiasm and eager to please staging a reunion of their own - and portraying another - in one of the great American comedies, Neil Simon's The Sunshine Boys.

The idea of performing the show stems from a Brewery Players production of The Odd Couple in 1989 with Maurice McCarthy and David Williams in the lead roles and directed by Eileen Nicols.

"To perform in this sort of sequel, has been a long-held ambition," explains David.

"Ever since Maurice and I were Neil Simon’s The Odd Couple we said we must do The Sunshine Boys when we were old enough."

The play sees Maurice as Al Lewis, and David playing, Willie Clarke, the famous vaudeville team known as The Sunshine Boys, who despite working together for 43 years, couldn't stand each other.

More importantly 'the boys' haven't talked since Lewis walked out on the team's final show 11 years ago leaving Clark, a die-hard New York showman, to soldier on regardless.

When the television company, CBS, invites the two to reunite for a ‘special’ on the history of comedy, Willie’s nephew, Ben, has the onerous task of trying to get the cantankerous pair to meet up again. The feud is reignited with dramatic results as they prepare to perform their famous comedy routine one last time.

ELTC's production of The Sunshine Boys also brings back another well known name to the Lakeland stage - Alan Mathews, of Freehold Theatre Company, who has director scores of plays across Cumbria and Lancashire.

Although Freehold has not operated for a few years, ELTC and Freehold have joined forces on about five occasions with the benefit of Alan’s directing and touring experience.

The cast also includes Steve Johnson as the long-suffering nephew Ben, and Eileen Nichols and Erica Mathews as nurses.

David fondly recalls the heady days of the Brewery Players, which among its many triumphs was the highly successful New Directions showcases for budding playwrights put on in the late 1990s, during the tenure of the Kendal arts centre's vital and visionary former director Anne Pierson.

"We all agree that the Brewery Players time was the best in that we enjoyed the support of the Brewery Arts Centre with its great theatre (s) and studio. We grew and benefitted from professional directors and writers and interaction with Pocket Theatre, Brewery Poets, Brewery and Cumbria Youth Theatre and all that happened there."

The Sunshine Boys opens with a three-night run at The Box at Kendal College (next to Kendal Museum) from Thursday-Saturday, January 12-14 (7.30pm, to book 01539-721451), before heading off to Staveley Roundhouse, from January 19-21 (7.30pm, 015395-61076) followed by another three shows at Beetham's Heron Theatre, from January 26-28 (7.30pm, 015395-64283).