Maggie Fox and Sue Ryding are at it again, taking the mick in style. Their new show finds fun in Aga sagas, reports CHARLES HUTCHINSON

LIP Service, those high-speed literary satirists, are at it again in Women On The Verger, sending up Aga sagas, Joanne Trollope and Mills & Boon in an evening of seduction and choux pastry.

Another punning title, another raft of rave London reviews, and now another visit to York, home city of Maggie Fox, the tall one, who will be appearing alongside Sue Ryding, the smaller one, at York Theatre Royal on October 12 to 14.

"It's a bit rude this one," warns Maggie. "We've had a letter of complaint. The first one we've ever had, so we're rather proud.

"The show had just opened in Keswick, where they'd had some new seats fitted, and it would seem this old lady had come to see the seats. She said she'd been very pleased about the seating but was shocked by the show."

Why? "We were told we were rude and vulgar... presumably because of all the corduroy trouser sniffing."

More of the corduroys in a moment. First, an introduction to the new show from the makers of the Bronte spoof Withering Looks. Women On the Verger is set in the quaint rectory of the parish of Little Pocklington, home to Marianne Quigley (played by Maggie) and her short if hugely ambitious husband, the Reverend James Quigley (played by Sue).

Marianne seems the perfect Rector's wife, and surely Mr Quigley must be a lucky man to have this woman to stoke his Aga? Not so, as temperatures around the Aga rise, a scandalous event is soon to rock the village and its slightly eccentric inhabitants.

Enter the dashing, very tall Giles Netherpacket in his giant corduroys, played by Sue. How tall exactly?

"Oh, very tall. He's 6ft 9in. Sue's on stilts - and you have to make friends with the owner of a corduroy factory to get such big trousers," says Maggie.

"Giles manages to upset everybody: partly because he's very tall, and partly because he takes the last punnet of cress from the cress stall. He and Marianne also got the hots for each other because he's wearing corduroys."

There she goes again. Corduroys. "Corduroy is just such a funny word, and it seems to be a very country thing to wear," Maggie says.

"So we have the corduroy-trouser sniffing and that cress stall, instead of cakes and jam, to let us take the show into the realms of the surreal."

As always, Lip Service are joyously pinpointing the minutiae of English life. "We've had lots of clergy coming to the show, who've really loved it, and while some have said it's a little too close to home, it's good to have the approval of the Church of England!" says Maggie.

Letters of praise and encouragement have been piling up.

"One woman wrote to us to say 'Do you know me? You've written my life, and as you know so much about my life, can you tell me how it works out?' Then she said 'Do call round if you're ever in the area; I've always got a lemon cake on the go'." Such letters are the stuff of Women On The Verger, as art imitates life and vice versa.

Not only the dialogue will provide amusement, so too will the set design by Louise Ann Wilson.

"We put out feelers to designers saying we wanted a giant Aga through which the rector would enter as it turned into a church," says Maggie. "We had Louise Ann Wilson recommended to us and she came up with a cream Aga in wood that looks so real people want to come up and touch it after the show".

The York dates bring the Women On The Verger tour to a close, and soon Maggie and Sue will be turning their thoughts to mounting a tour of Oscar Wilde's The Importance Of Being Earnest.

In the meantime, Women On The Verger is wholly recommended - but be advised to avoid wear corduroys.

Lip Service, Women On The Verger, York Theatre Royal, next Thursday to Saturday, 8pm. Box office: 01904 623568.