Having performed The Woman In Black for nine months in London’s West End, Sean Baker and Ben Porter are well geared for taking the hit play on the road.

Their tour brings them to Oxford Playhouse this week and Guildford’s Yvonne Arnaud Theatre next week.

Sean says: “We get on very well together which is quite important when you are doing a two-hander like this one.”

He thinks that Stephen Mallatratt’s dramatisation of Susan Hill’s creepy tale is very clever, “because it turns it into a play within a play”.

He adds: “Although it’s old-fashioned in many ways and doesn’t have special effects, it’s a great piece of story-telling – everyone wants to know what happens next.”

He says that the play’s appeal runs across all age ranges, but he expects the tour to be a different experience to the West End run because of the different physical spaces.

Sean studied English at Cambridge before striking out as an actor.

One of his career highlights was working with Hollywood star Kevin Spacey in Shakespeare’s Richard II.

But for Sean the main value of that Old Vic production was a reunion with director Trevor Nunn, for whom he had previously played Cassio in Othello.

On TV he also enjoyed the solo spotlight in The Blunkett Tapes, a drama documentary for which he recorded the actual tapes as well as playing the former minister.

Gardening and cooking are his main leisure activities.

The Woman In Black is at Oxford until Saturday and at Guildford from Monday until Saturday, October 4.