LEEDS playwright Alan Bennett has a hit comedy coming home next week in the form of his espionage double bill, Single Spies, at Leeds Grand Theatre from Tuesday to Saturday.

An Englishman Abroad and A Question Of Attribution present a pointedly satirical snapshot of two members of the infamous "Cambridge Five" spy ring, first Guy Burgess, then Anthony Blunt, who were recruited as spies by the Soviet Union during the Second World War.

In An Englishman Abroad, in 1950s' Moscow, Coral Browne receives an invitation to lunch with shunned Soviet spy Guy Burgess with his sole instruction to "bring a tape measure". This wry and touching play chronicles the pair’s fleeting friendship and Burgess’s attempts to cling to his way of life as a Soviet citizen.

A Question Of Attribution gives a glimpse into Anthony Blunt’s life of espionage within the walls of Buckingham Palace. Charting his double life as an art historian to royalty and a Soviet spy, Bennett's witty tale of forgery and deceit and culminates in a sharp and candid interrogation from Her Majesty The Queen.

Olivier Award-nominated Rachel Kavanaugh directs Nicholas Farrell as Burgess, Belinda Lang as Coral Browne and The Queen and David Robb as Blunt in this Chichester Festival Theatre and Birmingham Repertory Theatre co-production.

Belinda is delighted to be appearing in Single Spies. "Well, who isn’t a fan of Alan Bennett?! You couldn’t not be really," she says. "I’ve seen nearly everything of his. He’s one of those rocks that makes our country sit together artistically. He’s just brilliant. He’s got a fantastic ear but I’ve never done one of his plays and I’ve always felt sad about that, so this is great. I’m such a fan.

"I’ve also just worked with Rachel Kavanaugh on Oklahoma! and she mentioned that she was doing this but I never imagined she’d ask me, so this was such a lovely surprise."

Tickets for the 7.30pm evening performances and 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday matinees are on sale at £19.50 to £35 on 0844 848 2700 or at leedsgrandtheatre.com

York Press:

Nicholas Farrell as Guy Burgess in An Englishman Abroad

I spy...an interview with Nichols Farrell

What drew you to starring in Single Spies, playing Guy Burgess in An Englishman Abroad?

"The script, first and foremost. Bennett is one of our great playwrights and I think both of these scripts are wonderful. When the offer came in I think I considered for half a second before accepting. Here we have two perfect one-act plays about two men who were utterly different in personality but shared, to some extent, a vision.

"Alan’s writing is so special; there is such wit and humour and he draws characters so wonderfully well, there’s always a vulnerability to the characters, which makes such a rich story, certainly true in Single Spies. I’m so excited about the project, it’s an absolute privilege to work on his texts.

Is this your first experience of Alan Bennett’s work?

"I played Alan Bennett in The Lady In The Van at the National Theatre, in fact Kevin McNally and I played the two versions of him.

"There’s the film version now with Maggie Smith and Alex Jennings, which I’m looking forward to catching up on, but there was the ‘objective writer’ Alan Bennett figure and then the Alan Bennett who was involved in the action and involved in encounters with Maggie Smith’s character, The Lady.

"That was an incredibly happy experience, hugely great fun and sharing the stage with Maggie Smith was quite something."

Had you worked with Alan Bennett before then? What was he like to work with?

"No, that was the first and only time I’ve worked on any of Alan Bennett’s work and it was very memorable.  It also has a very fond place in my heart because 16 years ago my wife was heavily pregnant and this happened to be during the rehearsal period for the show.

"I had asked that if at any point the impending birth arrived, during the preview period when we’d opened the show, that I would be granted permission to go and attend the birth of my child. Which of course was graciously given but this meant they obviously, just in case it happened, had to have an understudy and Alan agreed to director Nick Hytner’s request that he would go on for me.

"I don’t think he was terribly keen on the idea!  But we opened and my wife was a long way past her due date so I told her to come to theatre and watch the show, hoping it might kick start something, but she came round backstage after the show and bumped into Alan Bennett on the stairs, who said ‘Oh Stella, nobody wants this baby more than me’.

"Then one Saturday afternoon my wife went into labour, so I duly said I won’t be able to do the matinee and Kevin McNally announced at the top of the show ‘due to the indisposition of Nicholas Farrell, the part of Alan Bennett will be played by Alan Bennett’."