JOHN Altman has swapped one tuxedo for another.

No sooner has he finished playing attorney Billy Flynn in the national tour of Chicago than John is doing the rounds in his monkey suit in John Godber's nightclub comedy Bouncers.

"Yeah, I'm tuxedo'd up again. Two years in a tuxedo, they should call it, after I did 503 performances of Chicago and now I'm in my eighth week of Bouncers," says John, who will be on door duty at the Grand Opera House, York, next week, in the lead role of Lucky Eric.

With him in the cast of four will be Nigel Pivaro, a billing that sees two of the 'bad boys' of British soap opera going head to head. Inevitably, the tour publicity has homed in on the union of Altman, alias Nick Cotton from EastEnders, and Pivaro, alias Terry Duckworth in Coronation Street, and John is enjoying the match-up.

"I was doing Chicago when my agent said there was this vacancy in Bouncers, and at the time I didn't know Nigel was going to be in it, but our two characters, Lucky Eric and Judd, have a bit of a loathing for each other and they have this set-to in the show, which is great to play. I nearly break his arm in the fight."

Ironically, camaraderie off-stage has proved far more dangerous than fighting on-stage, and John is the one who has ended up with the broken bone.

"Half my left arm is still in plaster after I had this accident backstage at Woking. A cleaner had made this linoleum floor like glass, and though I'd noted it the night before when I was wearing shoes, the next day I came out of my dressing room in just my underpants and socks to give this left-over sandwich to Nigel, and I just crashed over and fell on my left hand."

Barely able to do up his buttons because of the swelling, he nevertheless "managed to get through" that day's matinee and evening show before being strapped up at hospital. He had suffered a scaphoid fracture to the wrist.

"You can only see a little bandage now," John says. "I've managed to get around the injury by doing things with my right hand, but I can't click my fingers any more, so I just tap my feet instead."

To add insult to injury, Pivaro ate the trouble-causing sandwich. "Smoked salmon and cheese. Lovely!" says John. "But the injury has all added to Eric's character, making me look like I've gone through a brick wall."

Bouncers has provided John with several new experiences. Not least, Gareth Tudor-Price's production is John's first encounter with John Godber's physical comedies. "Nobody has said they're surprised to see me in a Godber play but Bouncers is definitely a step forward. I'd rather be doing this than murder mystery plays, and I've done plenty of them... say no more!" he says.

"I didn't really know anything about Bouncers. I'd always wanted to see it but thought it might be a bit lightweight, but then I read it and I laughed out loud and felt it would stretch me, which you are always looking to do."

Stretch him? Bouncers calls on John to play not only Lucky Eric with his four dyspeptic monologues but also a young lad on the pull, a girl on the nightclub floor and a Swedish porn star - and rehearsals were crammed into only two weeks.

"People have asked me what the hardest part of it is. I'm carrying 67 pages of dialogue and those four huge solo pieces, but I've realised the hardest thing is dancing to the Cheeky Girls while pretending to be a woman, when I'm a rock'n'roller at heart."

After Lucky Eric and his not so lucky break, is there any chance of John returning to EastEnders and another character who suffered injuries in a fall, Nick Cotton?

"He might limp back on. You never know," he says. "I'm not financially better off doing Nick on and off but I'm definitely happy artistically, working this way."

Bouncers, Grand Opera House, York, September 15 to 17, 7.30pm. Tickets: £10.50 to £16 on 0870 606 3595.

Updated: 09:52 Friday, September 12, 2003