MARSHALL Lancaster is adjusting to life in York after Life On Mars.

From tomorrow he plays a quartet of roles - Edgar Linton, Linton, Old Earnshaw and Joseph - in Jane Thornton's stage adaptation of Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights at York Theatre Royal.

York Twenty4Seven caught up with Marshall the morning after the party night before, on his return from the BAFTA television awards in London, when the retro cop show Life On Mars won only the people's choice prize.

"But I think that's better than the rest, " says Marshall, who played DC Chris Skelton in the BBC1 series. "I heard there was a stand-up row about whether the top prize should go to The Street or Life On Mars.

"Actually, I did a tiny little bit in The Street, so when The Street won I went up to the director and said 'It was my little bit that got you the award', and he said, 'Yeah Marshall, go away'.

"I did an episode with Jim Broadbent, and he really deserved his award. Nice lad, too. He said, 'You can chill out in my caravan'."

Happy memories, no doubt, and the work has kept on rolling in for the Macclesfield-born actor.

There was a stint in Coronation Street, playing a dirty down-andout opportunist called Slug, who nicked Roy and Hayley's Morris and left Becky on the moors; followed by a Stageworks tour of John Godber's Rugby League comedy Up'n'Under, playing apprentice miner Tony.

"Doing Coronation Street was very strange, because you've seen people like Vera Duckworth on TV for years and then there you are in the Rovers with them all, " says Marshall.

Now Wuthering Heights brings Lancaster to Yorkshire.

"My agent mentioned it, and I'd worked with the director Sue Dunderdale on Peak Practice. It was just a guest part in it, as a garage owner whose wife had something wrong with her belly. I had to go into the doctor's surgery and kick up a fuss, so I did that, enjoyed it and I'm really glad Sue saw me for Wuthering Heights."

In rehearsal, he has enjoyed the multiple-role playing in Thornton's adaptation with its cast of only five.

"I like the multi-roles; you can feel a bit schizophrenic, but it's about finding the differences without making them too different, " he says.

"In comedy you can go as far as you like with differences, but with this, you have to make little differences, so we've been honing them down, rather than letting them become big caricatures.

"That can be particularly difficult when Joseph is about 80!"

After a few weeks off postWuthering Heights, in July Marshall will begin filming Ashes To Ashes, a spin-off from Life On Mars relocated from Manchester to London.

"I'll be doing pretty much the same role. I've been described as a techno wizard this time, having been a bit of a div in the two series so far, and apparently I'll have a girlfriend, who gets kidnapped, but I better not say too much!" he say, stopping himself.

Marshall will be forever grateful for the impetus given to his career by Life On Mars.

"At the time I got it, I was loading milk vans at night and I had a dog-walking service in Macclesfield by day, calling myself the Dogfather. When they asked me at the audition what I'd been doing, I said, 'Chuck milk on van'.

They said, 'Is that a play?'.

"'No, ' I said, 'I've been chucking milk on vans', so they could see I had a sense of humour, but at that time you really couldn't see that Life On Mars was going to be so big."

So big, the dog-walking job has gone.

"My car was just wrecked by the end, " he says. "It was like an aquarium, letting in so much water, and once it started leaking, it just went to ruin."

His career, by comparison, is in fine fettle.

Wuthering Heights, York Theatre Royal, tomorrow until June 23.

Box office: 01904 623568.