SOAP stars Sarah Jayne Dunn and Rupert Hill both appeared on stage in York last year, within weeks of each other at the Theatre Royal. Now they return, this time very much together at the Grand Opera House, in the romantic comedy When Harry Met Sally, adapted for the stage by Marcy Kahan from the 1989 film script by Nora Ephron.

Best known for her long run as Mandy Richardson in Channel 4’s Hollyoaks, Sarah Jayne visited York last February in the French farce Boeing Boeing, playing the apple-pie American blonde air hostess Gloria in her first professional stage role.

“I actually got the script for When Harry when I was touring Boeing Boeing, when the production company said they would be touring the show this year and would I be interested in auditioning?” she says.

She was, but she feared she might miss out on the role when she couldn’t make an all-important recall. “I was touring with The Vagina Monologues and I was somewhere right up north, so I was worried I wouldn’t get it. “My agent said, ‘Let’s see what happens’, though I’d kind of written it off, but I knew they wanted to pair me off with Rupert.”

Indeed so. The producers duly cast them as New Yorkers Harry and Sally – the roles first played by Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan in Rob Reiner’s film – and Rupert finally met Sarah Jayne a couple of times before rehearsals began for the national tour.

“I’d think we’d probably met at TV awards ceremonies too, but it was important for me to meet him properly and vice versa as the chemistry has to be there,” says Sarah Jayne.

“But we had confidence in the director and the production team, and we knew we had similarities in that we’d both done soaps and we’ve both done some theatre now and we’re of a similar age.”

Rupert made his name as Coronation Street lothario Jamie Baldwin and went on to play a paedophile barrister in Stephen Brown’s provocative drama Future Me in Theatre Royal Studio last March.

“A few of my friends went up for the role of Harry and I was really attracted to it because it involved more comedy and more stage work, when these days it’s really hard to stretch your range as you end up being stereotyped on TV, where I finished up playing an extension of myself, certainly in my soap work,” he says.

On hooking Harry, Rupert found that When Harry Met Sally had rather more to it than merely being a light comedy. “It’s not saccharine, as it’s a hell of a journey they go on over 12 years,” he says. “At the beginning, Harry is extremely obnoxious and a bit of a chauvinist, but then his vulnerability shines through when he gets divorced.

“On the surface, you remember it as being light and funny, but when you take it apart there’s a lot more going on.”

Sarah Jayne decided not to watch the film again once she had secured the part of Sally. “Inevitably the movie will be in your head, but we wanted to put our own interpretations on the characters,” she says.

Rupert agrees. “Billy Crystal played it very dry, but that might not transfer well on stage, so I’ve put more energy in it,” he says.

Inevitably, all eyes will be on Sarah Jayne at one particular point to see if she really hits the heights in her latest role.

“Ah yes, the diner orgasm scene! Do you know what, I just went for it,” she says. “The worst thing is to be shy about those things and, of course, I’d done The Moans monologue in The Vagina Monologues, and this is not a patch on that.”

• Jamie Wilson Productions presents When Harry Met Sally at Grand Opera House, York, from Tuesday to Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm, Wednesday and Saturday. Box office: 0844 847 2322 or grandoperahouseyork.org.uk