On December 29, 2002, punk legend Joe Strummer died at his home in Somerset at the age of 50.

That night two Brighton men held an impromptu wake, consoling each other with Clash records and tales of how the frontman had come to change their lives.

One was Steve North, the other Nick Miles, both well-known soap actors who met a decade ago on a Brighton Theatre Events staging of The Football Factory and bonded over their mutual appreciation of the soulful rock 'n' roll, iconic imagery and rebel politics of The Clash.

And as they talked and remembered they came up with the idea of paying homage to Strummer with a play which would focus not on his own biography but on the stories of those he'd inspired.

"I don't believe in hero worship and nor would've Joe," says Miles, who has played Emmerdale's Jimmy King for the past three years.

"The really important thing about Joe is the influence he's had. You constantly bump into people in their early-40s who changed direction because of The Clash."

Now, with Jimmy King currently recovering from the Emmerdale explosion ("he's spending two months in Surrey 'having his back mended'"), Miles and North have finally found time to realise their idea.

Written by Paul Hodson, who adapted The Football Factory as well as The Lost Continent and Fever Pitch, Meeting Joe Strummer is a humorous and passionate play loosely based on Miles and North's own lives.

The main thread, in which the character of Nick runs away to follow the band on tour, is told through flashback and interwoven with anecdotes gleaned from interviews with more than a dozen other 40-something Clash fans.

"I first saw them on the White Riot tour," Miles recalls. "Joe was like a guy who's been fed into the mains, snarling and spitting with this huge, all encompassing noise. But these guys were actually saying something, that you can change things.

"Shortly after that gig I went and joined the Labour Party Young Socialists and got involved in Rock Against Racism. I just knew that my parents were wrong and Joe was right."

Promising bursts of White Riot, Garageland and London Calling as well as a fresh insight into the man who set the agenda for a generation, Meeting Joe Strummer previews at Komedia before making its way to the Edinburgh Fringe.

Whether or not the titular encounter occurs I can't divulge. But did Miles ever get to meet the man in real life?

"Three times," he says proudly.

"The first was in West London as I was going out for Sunday papers. I stood there in the street with my knees giving way and he just nodded his head and tugged at his forelock as he walked past.

"The second was in a nightclub in London. I was very drunk but managed to say, 'You changed my life'. He stopped and said, 'Oh really, I'd like to hear about that some time man', which of course made me run away scared."

The third time, a year before Strummer's death, Miles managed rather better.

He and North and been to see their hero at Concorde 2 with his new band, The Mescaleros. The two friends were enjoying a post-gig drink at Blanch House while, across the room, Strummer was being interviewed by a journalist.

"When I went to the bar he was being asked what he reckoned his audience thought about him," Miles recalls.

"He said, 'I dunno mate, you wanna ask this bloke'.

So I lent over into the tape machine and said, 'This guy took a generation by the scruff of the neck, educated them musically and politically, and he's still bloody good now'. Joe went, 'Yeah, I'll take that'."

Starts at 8pm. Tickets cost £7, call 01273 647100.