THERE must be magic in this Bean.

Hull playwright Richard Bean's hit farce One Man, Two Guvnors is still packing them in on its third tour, playing to big houses in York at the Grand Opera House since Tuesday in the tour's penultimate week.

However, you should make tracks there pronto, he advises.

"I don't think we'll do a fourth British tour," reckons Richard. "But there's been lots of thrills with this show – one of those thrills is that it went to Italy; two tours there, which is like taking Chekhov to Russia."

To explain, One Man, Two Guvnors is a very British adaptation of a very Italian, 18th century comedy by Carlo Goldoni, The Servant Of Two Masters.

"My play wasn't as funny over there, apparently, but that was rather predictable because commedia [dell'arte] is their art form. They wheeled out a much older actor as the lead, someone a bit like a Simon Russell Beale."

At this juncture, quite by chance, Richard let slip that he is writing a part for Russell Beale – "but he doesn't know it yet, so it'll never be my fault if he doesn't get to do it," he says – for a play to be staged in Hull's year as the City Of Culture in 2017.

"Did you know that Hull was the first town to close its gates to Charles I, on April 23 1642? Hull had the biggest arsenal in the country at that time as munitions had been brought north, in preparation to fight the Scots and to fight off the Dutch from the sea," says Richard.

"Parliament got there first when both Charles and Cromwell's forces headed there, so Charles was left outside the city gates mumbling when Sir John Hotham, the governor of Hull, bolted the gates against the King."

Sir John would be the role for the aforementioned Russell Beale in a play to be co-produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company and Hull Truck Theatre, opening in Hull in February 2017 and then transferring to Stratford.

Sir John was a character all right. "He had 17 children by five wives, but it wasn't polygamy. The wives all died in childbirth, as they did in those days," says Richard.

"I've called the play The Hypocrite because Sir John would say he was for Parliament to some, but for Charles to others. He was sent by Parliament to secure the arsenal, but later turned to the King's side and then refused to supply the Parliamentarian Thomas Fairfax with powder and munitions."

It did not end well for Sir John. "He was beheaded at Tower Hill on January 3 1645, the day after his son was also beheaded," says Richard.

"But I'm looking to make it a commedia piece, and of course 'The Hypocrite' title has echoes of Moliere's French farce The Hypochondriac. I'm considering starting it with Sir John's execution, though I have to think of a way to make it funny, like the executioner saying 'Chop, chop'."

Execution? Comedy? "Sir John's story absolutely lends itself to farce," insists Richard.