CLASSIC Forties' film Brief Encounter steams to The Haymarket Theatre, Basingstoke, next month in a new stage version.

The gripping tale of illicit love written by Noel Coward and made into a film by David Lean in 1946, will be performed by Middle Ground Theatre Company from November 25 to 30.

Former Brookside actress Karen Drury stars as a suburban housewife whose meeting with a respectable doctor (Richard Walsh - better known as Sicknote from London's Burning) at a railway station marks the start of a doomed six-week love affair. The film, considered extremely daring when it was first released, starred Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard.

Performances are at 7.45pm with 2pm matinees on November 28 and 30.