"Everyone says Brian Clough is the great English manager we never had," says playwright Stephen Lowe, "but for me he was also the great stand-up comic we never had. So I decided I'd give him a stage."

A genuine working-class hero renowned for his passion, frankness and humour, Brian Clough transformed the fortunes of Nottingham Forest and was also the sometime manager of Brighton and Hove Albion.

And though he was never offered the England job - presumably because the FA were nervous about his outspoken nature - when he died in 2004 he was mourned nationwide.

First staged at the Nottingham Playhouse last summer, Lowe's The Spirit Of The Man is a whimsical fantasy comedy which roots its appeal in the personality of Old Big 'Ead, as Clough called himself.

But though Lowe and director Alan Dosser are both ardent Forest fans, it isn't really, he says, anything to do with football. Instead, imagine "Blithe Spirit meets Trading Places".

Now resident in heaven, the late Brian Clough sits on the celestial bench alongside the likes of Lord Byron, DH Lawrence and General Booth. When an angel delivers a garbled message about "Nottingham Forest" and a man in trouble, he thinks he's found his calling.

But upon descending to Earth he discovers the mortal in need is Jimmy, a blocked playwright, and the Nottingham Forest in question is the setting for Jimmy's intended work, a musical about the life of Robin Hood.

"It's crazy, really," admits Lowe, who is in Brighton this week recording another play for Radio 4. "In fact, the more I think about it, the more I wonder how I got away with it. The idea was to bring Brian's well-known managerial skills to a load of theatre darlings.

"He loved a kind of football which was beautiful and he made one of the greatest teams in the world. He wasn't just out for himself, he was in love with something. I wanted that inspiration to be the story really, even though it comes from an odd source."

As Jimmy soon finds ("he tries everything bar direct exorcism"), the legendary manager is not easy to shake off and soon he's using football terminology to coach the downhearted playwright through everything from the creative process to his love life.

It is, says Clough, "a strange, ghostly take on Morecombe and Wise."

With musical numbers ranging from medieval folk to comic songs and some almost impossible set requirements (Lowe floored the artistic director with a request for "a life-size oak tree which operated like a Tardis and opened on to different worlds"), The Spirit Of The Man was always far-fetched.

But Lowe's greatest risk was in presuming the existence of an actor who could once more bring the famous manager to life. Step forward, to his great relief, The Bill actor Colin Tarrant.

"Colin is a friend of mine from way back who I hadn't seen for nearly 20 years," he explains. "We'd done a lot of looking and we just couldn't find anyone to play Brian, and then Colin just walked in and claimed the part.

"It was the most extraordinary audition I'd ever seen - he sang Yesterday as Brian Clough. It's way beyond imitation, what he does. He gets inside the man, and all the passions and the ambiguities. Barbara Clough loved it." 7.45pm,
Thur and Sat mats 2.30pm, tickets cost £13-£22. Call 08700 606650.