A Taste Of Honey, York Theatre Royal, March 16 to April 3

MARK White usually plays comic characters on stage, dodgy pieces of work on television.

For proof, think of his humorous turn as chef Frankie in Frankie And Johnny In The Clare De Lune at York Theatre Royal in October 2002, or his nine episodes in the murky TV soapland of EastEnders last year, playing the hitman brought in by Lisa to hit Phil Mitchell particularly hard.

However, his latest theatre role gives him a nasty turn, cast by Theatre Royal artistic director Damian Cruden as brash car dealer Peter in Shelagh Delaney's 1958 kitchen-sink drama A Taste Of Honey.

"I don't normally get to do play baddies on stage, though virtually every role I've had on TV has been a baddie, a really nasty sort. Whenever I do stage plays, it tends to be comedy but maybe Damian saw something in me that made him think I was right for this role."

What kind of man is Peter? "He's a Londoner, he's a car salesman, a violent man, possibly alcoholic, and he's into older women. Although he's not a pimp, you always sense there's a darker side to him," says Londoner Mark.

He is relishing his return to the Theatre Royal and the chance to work with Damian Cruden once more. "He'd asked me to do some work with him last year but I couldn't and then he offered me this role, and any actor would like to work with Damian because he's so good.

"On top of that, the thing about this play is that's there's not as much background detail about the three men as there is about the two women, which gives you a licence to do things with the roles, whereas the women are very solidly written. Even when the play is fleshed out from the original version that Delaney sent to Joan Littlewood with only the two women characters, you still find more in it."

Mark has given the character extra detail, such as when he was born and when he joined up in the Second World War. "So long as it works with the dialogue and doesn't go against what the character says, it's good to do that," he says. "I've modelled him on someone I know who was fastidious about how he dressed. That affects how he sits, so I have Peter sitting on the edge of a seat because he doesn't want to crease his suit. Things like that help to build a character."

Since Mark last appeared on a York stage, he has starred as a New York hoofer in Call Me Merman at the King's Head in London and filmed a role in the Edgar Allan Poe story The Tell Tale Heart. "The director of photography was Jack Cardiff, a cinema legend, who's 92 now. You can see why he won two Oscars, because the texture of colour in this new film is unbelievably good," says Mark.

There was EastEnders too, but he stopped watching after two episodes. "I watch no telly, only the news and football. I'm a Radio 4 nut instead. Watching EastEnders, there'd be three cuts and then they would move on to the next scene, and it was so quick, I couldn't take it, but I got all these calls saying 'I saw you in EastEnders last night," he says.

Even now, Mark does not know how the Lisa-Phil storyline ended. "I got the pay cheque and that was enough," he says, smiling at the thought.

A Taste Of Honey, York Theatre Royal, March 16 to April 3. Box office: 01904 623568.

Updated: 15:58 Thursday, March 11, 2004