LEADING television costume designer, Brian Castle, and his make up artist wife, Christine, have come to the rescue of a theatre company.

The Potato Room Players is one of only two companies in the world invited to stage the hit musical, Jolson the Musical.

The show, due to run for five days from May 14 at Leeds City Varieties, stars Yeadon businessman Philip Hopkins as Jolson and Otley's Greg Silverwood as his dresser.

But producer Stuart Woolf's triumph quickly became a nightmare when he was told that the company had to seek expert help in order to produce a historically accurate production.

Mr Woolf said: "It was going to be a horrific financial burden until someone suggested Brian, who has worked on a variety of 'period' costume dramas for Yorkshire Television, including David Jason's Micawber and the 1960s soap Heartbeat."

Brian agreed to supervise PRP's

costume team and also suggested that his wife, Christine, could also help out.

She said: "People joke about Jolson and believe that the leading man simply applies boot polish to his face, but the reality is very different."

Christine said there was only one scene where the leading man was required to black-up as part of Jolson's famous stage character, Gus.

But the stage makeup has to be removed just minutes later while Phil is still on stage in the middle of dialogue.

"We have devised a special formula which will produce the desired effect but also enable Phil to remove the black face in seconds by simply using a towel."

The show, which played Broadway and also won the 1996 Lawrence Olivier Award for Best Musical following its run at the Victoria Palace Theatre, London opens for five days at the City Varieties, Leeds on May 14.