ALAN Booty has taken his research for his latest stage role on to the streets of York.

For one day, the actor worked with the City of York Council street-cleaning team as part of his preparation to play street cleaner Stevie in Paul Osborne’s new comic play, The Bluest Blue, in which a young bookseller is tackled by a predatory traffic warden outside York Minster and a local street cleaner is left to sweep up the pieces.

Meeting up with the team at the council’s Silver Street office, Alan cleaned the streets, emptied bins and shared other daily tasks with workers including Kevan Carr.

“Getting inside the character by spending time with real people who do the same job is a great opportunity to find out more about the realities of what they do,” he says. “I’m grateful to Paul Willey and his team who do such an important job keeping York clean and tidy. But they do much more than that. They’re in a position to help people, and that’s what the play is partly about – the vital role of the public sector. Oh, and helping people with their bowling action too…!”

The Bluest Blue will be premiered at Manchester’s 24:7 Theatre Festival at New Century House, , from July 26 before a run at 41 Monkgate, York, from August 5 to 7 (tickets: yorktheatreroyal.co.uk)