TWO of the UK’s best-loved stars of stage and screen are about to perform together for the first time.

Throughout their celebrated careers Tom Conti and Gwen Taylor have never shared the stage before until teaming up for the wickedly satirical play, Before The Party, which arrives in Malvern tomorrow evening (Mon) for a one week run until Saturday, October 3.

Tom Conti will also be directing this brand new production of writer Rodney Ackland’s black comedy, having first directed it in 1980 at the Apollo Theatre in London starring Jane Asher and the late Michael Gough.

The war is over and the Skinner family is trying to return to normal. If only the blasted Government wasn’t such a nuisance with rationing preventing cook from acquiring delicious delicacies. With daughter Laura returned from Africa, widowed but not alone, they prepare for the latest social gathering.

Tom Conti is one of the most respected and celebrated actors of his generation. Unforgettable as the leading man in Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence and Shirley Valentine, he has also appeared as myriad characters on screen and stage.

He was recently voted Most Popular Actor in the West End alongside Dame Judi Dench. This year saw him tour the UK as Juror #8 in Twelve Angry Men, a role he reprised from the successful and sold-out extended run of the drama at the Garrick Theatre in London’s West End.

Gwen Taylor is best known in recent years for her role as Anne Foster, mother of the villainous Frank Foster in Coronation Street, but she is also much loved for starring in the ITV sitcoms Duty Free, A Bit of A Do with David Jason – for which she was nominated for a Best Actress TV Bafta - and as the lead character in Barbara.

She also starred as Peggy Armstrong in Heartbeat, and has appeared in Yes, Prime Minister, Murder Most Horrid, Doc Martin, Midsomer Murders and Fat Friends. Her theatre credits include Driving Miss Daisy, The Butterfly Lion, Prick Up Your Ears and Calendar Girls.

Rodney Ackland, who adapted the play from a short story by Somerset Maugham, has recently seen a huge resurgence in the popularity of his work, which is much admired by such artists as Dame Judi Dench, Bill Nighy and originally Dame Edith Evans and Sir John Gielgud.

Ackland is best known for his play Absolute Hell, set in a decaying West End drinking club at the end of the Second World War and performed at the National Theatre in 1996 starring Judi Dench.

Before The Party is based on a short story by Somerset Maugham, lauded for his 1915 novel Of Human Bondage, which is widely considered to be his masterpiece.

Tom Conti stars as Aubrey Skinner and Gwen Taylor as Blanche Skinner, alongside Elizabeth Payne as Kathleen Skinner.