FOR the first time since leaving Emmerdale, Stuart Wade and Tonicha Jeronimo are about to appear in a show together, at the Grand Opera House in York.

The real-life married couple, who played the soap husband and wife Biff and Linda Fowler, are to star as Buttons and Cinderella, a pantomime partnership destined alas never to reach the aisle.

Now in rehearsal at the Cumberland Street theatre, they open in Simon Barry's production on Thursday. Yet their pantomime paths could have crossed a year earlier. "We were supposed to do Aladdin together at Dorking Halls last year but I had to pull out because I was pregnant," recalls Tonicha.

She duly gave birth to Lorcan, and stayed in West Yorkshire to look after the new baby while Stuart fulfilled his commitments as Wishee Washee in Aladdin.

"I'm definitely not pregnant this time! - and I'm really looking forward to working on stage with Stuart. We can help each other out if things are going wrong!" she jokes.

Stuart joins in: "Anything can happen in panto and I'm sure it will. Perhaps it will end up with Buttons being booed for the first time in pantomime history!"

Whatever is thrown their way in the unpredictable world of pantomime, Stuart believes their well-grooved partnership will serve them well. "I know how Tonicha works as an actress, she knows how I work, and I think people will accept us on stage together quite easily as they know us as a couple on TV," he says.

He also suggests that his previous experience of pantomime and new experience of fatherhood will assist his performance. "It makes it easier having made my pantomime debut last year, and having a child now it hits home that pantomime is a show for children," says Stuart. "Being a daddy, somewhere along the line it makes me feel I have developed my communication skills with children."

Although Tonicha and Stuart have not shared a theatre stage until now, their careers do have common links. Not least, they have both been working with John Godber at Hull Truck Theatre over the past year.

Tonicha Jeronimo - her name signifies her Portuguese stock - starred in Seasons In The Sun, Godber's story of life on the bins in the early Seventies. Stuart Wade - from Halifax - has appeared in Godber's productions of Frankenstein, The Glass Menagerie and Godber's campsite drama Perfect Pitch.

"I loved doing Seasons In The Sun because it's about real life, and because John has become so unique in the way he works," Tonicha recalls. "It was a good show for me to do, and it really progressed from the opening run in Hull. By the time we did it in Leeds, it had fully developed and all the characters had become more individual - which was important as I was playing three parts!"

Stuart played the role of blunt Grant in Perfect Pitch and he may have the chance to do so again. "John was very happy with how it went, and he's trying to get a pilot TV programme built around the character, so that could mean more work!" he says.

That is a prospect for the future. More immediately, Stuart is enjoying performing with Tonicha in York. "And it's nice to be in a show so much nearer to home this time," he says.

Cinderella, Grand Opera House, York, December 14 to January 7. Tickets: adults £9 to £13; children and groups of ten or more £7 except Boxing Day. Box office: 01904 671818.