Neil Pearson was born in London in 1959. After studying at the Central School of Speech and Drama, he appeared on stage before being cast in Channel 4's comedy `Drop the Dead Donkey' and BBC's award- winning `Between the Lines'. Single, he lives in London.

Born in Stockton-on-Tees, Stephen Tompkinson, 39, was also in `Drop the Dead Donkey' and has since been in `Ballykissangel' and the film `Brassed Off'. He lives in Berkshire with his second wife and their daughter. He will be starring with Neil Pearson in Kevin Spacey's production of `Cloaca'

NEIL PEARSON

The first time I met Stephen was when I phoned for a rent boy. Cheap as chips, he was. Actually, I don't remember the first time I laid eyes on him. I remember the clutch of people; that's really what you remember most when you start a new thing. Actors are way too self-centred to remember other people when they're about to start a new project. It was Drop the Dead Donkey, and it was the autumn of 1990 in a rehearsal room somewhere in north London. It was called Newsroom then and it was a pilot. As a result of that pilot going rather well, we then spent the next eight years sitting at the same end of the table, both in rehearsal rooms and in the studio.

Stephen is a bit younger than me. I'd been working for a long time and was starting to make bigger stuff. I'd taken the theatre route for 10 years or so. He'd been out of college for a couple of years doing mostly radio, then this came up and we spent four months a year, off and on, for the next eight years together. Coming back to do Cloaca together, it feels like picking up where we left off, we have a shorthand with each other.

We tend to socialise as a group: if one of the Donkey team is working on anything, there tends to be a school trip organised. We go and cheer along anyone who is working on anything else. Rob Duncan, who played Gus in Drop the Dead Donkey, started to do panto, which was excellent news because if you have to go to a pantomime, go with the writers of Drop the Dead Donkey: the heckles are just world-class! "Behind you! Your career! It's behind you!"

I don't think we have ever had a falling out. Petty stuff with football, but nothing serious. There's a bit of joshing about the North/South thing, but he's settled in the South, so I think the argument's won. The reason that Donkey worked so well was that underneath the antagonisms of the characters, there was a bedrock of trust among the actors. Steve and I did a lot of our stuff together, so we needed that.

My idea of success has always been working less, that is to say you can choose what you want to do. I think Stephen likes working all the time. I get the feeling that his opinion of himself, his self-esteem - outside of his family, of course - is linked to the amount of work he's got on. That's not something I feel: I like working, and I'm loving doing this job, but when this job's over, I could happily take a couple of months off.

Stephen's much more outgoing than me, much more sociable. We have very different dispositions. He likes to tell a story, he likes to be out with mates, he likes the anecdote, he likes the gag. I recognise all that, I am just quieter. Watching him at ease in social situations, I'm slightly envious of how well he copes with it. With Stephen, the off switch isn't there. But I don't think that's a fault. I have a different sort of fun. I am very happy in my own company; I'm not sure Steve is.

STEPHEN TOMPKINSON

The first time I laid eyes on Neil was at the first read-through for Drop the Dead Donkey. Neil didn't have to audition, he was so good, so he came in with a bit of an aura about him. And I knew that Neil had been at Central because I'd seen his picture on the cafe wall. You just have to have completed the course and your picture goes up, so Neil was gazing down on me for three years and you do tend to study everyone and look out for them when you start going to the theatre; it's a sort of alma mater thing.

Neil's laid-back and incredibly intelligent. He has a passion for books and collecting first editions - he flies around the world to go to auctions. I think he's the best-read person I've ever met, he can go through a cryptic crossword in about 10 minutes! I don't understand how his brain works. We once had to do a gig in Leicester for an Aids benefit and then Neil did a massive impromptu speech at the end. And he was just brilliant and succinct and powerful and moving and it sort of knocked my socks off.

I suppose we were a bit of a double act in Drop the Dead Donkey - the two bad lads who, if we were at school, you'd end up separating - and that would spill over into the rehearsal room. I can read Neil very well and he can read me, and the timings are very similar. I assume that we've both learnt from each other. And it's great, it's like having a safety net when he's on stage with you: if I fall down I know he'll be able to pick me up. I think sometimes there's a frustration that he knows he's cleverer than the rest of us.

Neil's travelled to Ipswich, he's travelled to Manchester to see me in things. He's amazingly good like that. But he's a very private man; he'd come to gatherings where it was the whole cast, but he wasn't one for nipping to the pub after rehearsals. He likes to get home and get on with his books, and you just respect that. But when it comes to football...! He's a big Tottenham fan, and I'm a die-hard Middlesbrough fan, so you can expect a phone call if Tottenham have beaten Middlesbrough: "That'll be Pearson!" And I've done the same to him.

Neil's one of the fastest wits I've ever met, so he's no reason to feel inadequate in any way. The fact that I'm taller and younger, maybe. I keep reminding him how much older he is.