ACTOR Sir Tom Courtenay hails from Hull, poet Philip Larkin lived and worked there, yet the paths of two of the East Riding's most famous figures have never crossed, until now.

Tonight is the opening night of Sir Tom's new one-man show at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, Pretending To Be Me: an intimate and affectionate tribute to the poet, university librarian and jazz critic that combines Courtenay's reflections with examples of Larkin's poetry and wit.

Compiled and performed by Courtenay, artistic director Ian Brown's new production may be a world premiere but the impetus came from an earlier show about Larkin, as Sir Tom recalls.

"I would never have dreamt of not attributing Michael Godley's contribution," he says. "About five or six years ago he sent me the script for a solo performance he had done called An Evening With Philip Larkin, and I told him I wanted to think about his idea and see how it struck me. It led me to read Larkin's biography, his collected letters and a book of his essays and reviews called Required Writing.

"I felt Michael's piece had used too many poems, not enough prose, but I liked the idea of him standing there talking to the audience."

Between other commitments, Sir Tom set to work on his own Larkin project, asking Ian Brown to cast an eye over the text (they had collaborated previously on Moscow Stations at Edinburgh's Traverse Theatre in another one-man show that won Courtenay an Evening Standard Award upon its transfer to London).

In February Sir Tom did a try-out of Pretending To Be Me at a Soho club, then another performance for the Larkin Society in Hull.

"Even now it's still a work in progress, and it won't stop because I choose material and move it about," he says.

Sir Tom provides the "odd linking line" to oil the show's wheels but the words and wit of Larkin dominate.

"My aim was always to do it from his material as there weren't many poets who had written about themselves so much in prose, and I like the truthfulness of it," he says.

"I'd never met Larkin and I didn't really know his poems until Michael Godley sent me his script, but I've grown rather fond of Larkin and I admire him. He had a wonderful brain and a wonderful turn of phrase and he was so witty."

The title Pretending To Be Me is borrowed from Larkin himself.

"I like it. It's rather an attractive phrase; cryptic too," says Sir Tom, who will not, however, be pretending to be the balding Larkin, beyond putting on glasses. "There's nothing to be gained from me doing an impersonation and I wouldn't want it to be that. I couldn't look like him and I'd end up looking like neither of us - and at least I look like one of us!

"Besides, there's no baldness in my family, we're all very full headed!"

Pretending To Be Me, West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds, until December 21. Box office: 0113 213 7700.

Updated: 09:50 Friday, November 22, 2002