ADRIAN Hood is 6ft 6ins, Sue Devaney is 4ft 11ins, or 5ft 2ins as she amusingly exaggerates in her profile in the actors' who's who, Spotlight.

The long and short of it is that they are a perfect match for playing Councillor Albert Parker and his wife Annie in Northern Broadsides and York Theatre Royal's co-production of J B Priestley's Yorkshire comedy When We Are Married, which opens in York tonight.

Adrian and Sue have multiple stage and television roles behind them but only now are they making their debuts for Halifax company Northern Broadsides in Priestley's tale of the Helliwells, the Parkers and the Soppitts: pillars of their community in their West Riding town of Cleckleywyke in 1908, but not for much longer.

York Press:

Adrian Hood as Councillor Albert Parker in When We Are Married. Picture: Nobby Clark

Married on the same day in the same chapel, they gather to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary, but suddenly they discover the vicar was not licensed and they are not married after all. Cue pandemonium before horrified social embarrassment makes way for the realisation that they are free from the shackles of long, tedious marriages.

Adrian and Sue have performed together previously on TV. "We did Dinnerladies in 1995 and we played a gypsy husband and wife in The Royal, which we filmed on the cliff top in Scarborough," Sue recalls. "I think they put us together because they thought we'd look physically funny together. We played this couple who lived on a 1950s' fairground in one of those old-style gypsy caravans with the wood interior, and we had a great time."

Northern Broadsides artistic director Barrie Rutter must have been struck by the same thought that Adrian and Sue's tall-and-small double act was an irresistible combination for the Parkers, and both actors are hugely enjoying their first Broadsides outing. "It feels a bit special already," says Sue. "Barrie is very good at putting his companies together."

While Adrian and Sue know plenty of their fellow cast members, Adrian was not so familiar with Priestley's 1938 play. "It's very different from the last married couple we played!" he says. "I didn't know the play before before reading it for this production, so I'm just discovering how well written it is. You can tell Priestley had fun writing this 'sly farce' that's very astute too.

York Press:

The long and the short of it: Adrian Hood and Sue Devaney rehearse their roles as Councillor and Mrs Parker

"It really draws in the audience, who love being in the know, where they know more than the characters, and they love the men's pomposity and self-righteousness when they learn they've been living in sin."

Unlike Adrian, Sue has previous history with Priestley's play. "I played the maid, Ruby Birtle, years ago in the West End at the Whitehall Theatre – now called Trafalgar Studios – in one of my first roles and there's a story there in that I've always wanted to do a Northern Broadsides show," she says.

"When Barrie asked me what I wanted to do, I said 'Shakespeare', but he said, 'we're not doing Shakespeare this time, we're doing When We Are Married'! So I'm doing that!"

York Press:

Sue Devaney as Annie Parker and Steve Huison as Herbert Soppitt in When We Are Married. Picture: Nobby Clark

As chance would have it, when Sue first appeared in the play in 1985, the role of Mrs Northrop was played by the celebrated actress Patricia Hayes, who had her own past connection. "She'd played the original Ruby Birtle [at St Martin's Theatre in London in October 1938] and I ended up living with her.

"She was 76; I was 18, and I was living on my sister's floor when she was working for Coppernob, the fashion designer," she says. "Patricia and I were sharing a dressing room and one day she said 'come and stay at my place', and I stayed there for seven years!

"I'm 49 now, so it all happened 31 years ago, and to be doing the play again now is a great feeling, because like anything, if it's good writing, it's a pleasure to do."

When We Are Married runs at York Theatre Royal from tonight until September 24 and then tours around Yorkshire to Hull Truck Theatre, September 27 to October 1; West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds, October 18 to 22, and Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, October 25 to 29, finishing up at the Viaduct Theatre in Northern Broadsides' home town of Halifax from November 29 to December 10. Box office: York, 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk; Hull, 01482 323638 or hulltruck.co.uk; Leeds, 0113 213 7700 or wyp.org,uk; Scarborough, 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com