THE boys are back in town as Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse return to the BIC tomorrow night, hot on the heels of last month's appearance at the venue. Incredibly, after having enjoyed a highly successful TV partnership over the past quarter of a century, they've never done a live tour as a double act.

Until now. Fans all over the country as the pair continue the national tour of their brand new show entitled Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse Legends!

So why, after 25 years of highly successful TV collaboration, have they finally decided to hit the road now.

“It's the right time to do it - before we die,” laughs Paul, who has co-starred with Harry in such hugely popular series as Harry and Paul, Harry Enfield's Television Programme and Harry Enfield and Chums.

Fans can look forward to seeing what has become of such widely-loved characters as Loadsamoney, Stavros, The Old Gits, Smashie and Nicey, Kevin the Teenager, The Self-Righteous Brothers and The Surgeons.

Harry and Paul are undeniably excited about the prospect of touring for the first time, although Harry admits that, “We're nervous about 'drying' (forgetting their lines). But if we do that, of course it'll b funny.”

Paul adds that: “We want to fulfil people's expectations. When we did The Fast Show Live, we got a great a deal of affection from the audience. That feeds your enjoyment and everybody else's.”

So what can we hope to see from the well-loved characters on show in Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse Legends!?

“It would have been easy to just churn out the old shows,” muses Paul, 57, “like when you see bands just doing their greatest hits. But we wanted to do something different. We'll take the old stuff and give it a modern twist. So we couldn't do Stavros without some kind of reference to the current situation in Greece.”

And what about the world's favourite DJs?

“You couldn't do Smashie and Nicey stuff from the past, when there is so much to say about DJs now,” Harry reckons.

“They're easy to modernise. Nicey's been away on a 'holiday' for a few years.”

Talking about another very popular character, Harry says, “I was worried about making Loadsamoney work, but then I realised that he is just a stupid, naughty idiot.”

“I can see you're really enjoying being the prize idiot, Harry,” Paul laughs.

Harry also tackles the issue of a 54-year-old comedian playing Kevin the Teenager.

“We're doing a joke about me still playing him. The important thing for us is that it's fun. I hope fans join in the fun and really enjoy it. We'd like them to leave saying, 'That was actually very good'.

“I'm really looking forward to it. I think it'll be great - as long as we know the lines and don't have a heart attack.”

: Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse Legends! UK Tour comes to the BIC tomorrow night. For tickets visit bic.co.uk or harryandpaul.com.