Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart to star in No Man's Land

Sir Ian McKellen and Sir Patrick Stewart.

Sir Ian McKellen and Sir Patrick Stewart are to star in No Man's Land on London's West End.

The legendary British thespians have already acted in the Broadway version of Harold Pinter's classic absurdist drama at The Cort Theatre, from 2013 to 2014, and will be reunited on stage at London's Wyndham's theatre from September 8.

Ian - who first met his close pal Patrick on the set of the original 'X-Men' movie in 2000 - will take on the role of Spooner, an unkempt poet, while Patrick plays millionaire writer Hirst in the story which follows the writers who reminisce about the past at a Hampstead pub.

Ian is thrilled to be reprising his part, telling the Daily Mail newspaper: "It's a very English play. It's lovely to come back to it."

However, the multi-award-winner has not always been a fan of the drama and Patrick had to do a lot of persuading to get him on board.

The former Star Trek: The Next Generation actor previously said: "I had been working on Ian for months about No Man's Land. I'd say, Ian are we ready yet?

'No, no, I'm not ready yet'. So the director very cleverly arranged to do a read through, brought in two other actors and one afternoon we sat around a dressing room and read the play. It was a beautiful thing to watch Ian getting why we knew he was perfect casting for this role. The deal was done, and after that we had to think about where we'd do it."

- BANG! Showbiz