Actor Brian Capron is full of surprises. Still perhaps best known to millions as the villainous serial killer Richard Hillman from Coronation Street, thousands of people of a certain generation have probably quite forgotten his first brush with television fame as teacher “Hoppy” Hopwood from Grange Hill.

I know I did.

Then there’s the fact he’s half French, he’s appeared in almost every classic television series from the Seventies and Eighties, including Blake’s 7, Bergerac, Minder, Birds of a Feather and the Sweeney, and if that wasn’t enough, he does a pretty mean Suffolk accent.

“That’s because I grew up in Woodbridge,” he tells me. “When I was young my stepfather took the family down to live just outside London airport, which is why I have that accent, but I can slip into Suffolk pretty easily when I want to.”

And he does!

“My mother and one of my sisters are buried in the church there, a beautiful spot near the River Deben, and so when I’m in Colchester I’ll be popping up there to place some flowers on their graves.”

Brian is in town for the opening of a rather exciting new piece of musical theatre called the Smallest Show on Earth.

Based on the classic Ealing Comedy of the same name starring Peter Sellers and Margaret Rutherford, it tells the story of newly-weds Matt and Jean Spenser who inherit a cinema and think their fortune is made.

But the Bijou, better known as the fleapit, is the victim of a dirty tricks campaign from its rival flashy neighbour the Grand. So the Bijou’s benevolent manageress Mrs Fazackalee, played by Liza Goddard, and unreliable projectionist Mr Quill, played by Brian, combine with Matt and Jean to outwit the opposition and restore the Bijou to its former glory.

As well as the cracking Ealing storyline, this stage adaptation has a gorgeous musical twist with the use of songs by the great Irving Berlin, such as Shakin’ the Blues Away, Let Yourself Go, and Steppin’ Out with My Baby.

“It’s the director, Thom Southerland’s original idea,” Brian says, “and it’s absolutely inspired.

Who would have thought these terrific songs would have fitted so well with the storyline but they absolutely do and we’re having a ball doing it.

“I’m not a natural singer and dancer but I’m enjoying every minute.”

Of course, Brian is being far too modest because although he is better known as a straight dramatic actor both on stage and screen, whenever he has turned his hand to musical work, he’s always done rather well at it.

“It was kind of down to Where the Heart Is,” he explains. “I had been doing that lovely series for a while and I was starting to think ‘oh good, I’ve got a job here for a good few more years’ and then ITV went and scrapped it. At the time, someone had suggested I be the narrator for the Rocky Horror Picture Show, which I was just going to do for the regional tour, before going back to the television show, but when they chopped the series, they asked me whether I would take Rocky into the West End.

“After that, I did Nathan Detroit in Guys and Dolls and most recently Geoffrey in Stepping Out.

“I love doing musical theatre. I know it’s not really my thing but it’s such great fun. I’ve always found it more satisfying when I’m doing something different. Before this, I did What the Butler Saw by Jo Orton, which was great.”

Like so many before him, Brian got the drama bug at school performing in a production of Arthur Miller’s the Crucible and so after leaving school he applied, and got, a place at Lamda in London.

“I started off with people like Bob Hoskins, David Suchet and Robert Lindsay,” he explains. “We all did repertory theatre together but television has kind of dominated my career, especially when I first started, and I think that’s why I survived after I left Coronation Street, because I had all that experience right from the start.

“I remember when I left Grange Hill it was because my agent suggested I do it. I didn’t want to. I had two young children at the time and it was good work with repeat fees but I ended up going on to do a sitcom called Full House, which had 15million viewers at one stage. I mean it was pretty awful by today’s standards but it did well back then.”

The Smallest Show on Earth I suspect will fare a lot better with a small regional tour following its opening in Colchester and hopefully a West End transfer.

“That would be great,” Brian adds.

“This is a big show and a lot of work has gone into making it such a great production so we’re all rather hopeful it will do well.”

The Smallest Show on Earth is at the Mercury Theatre, Balkerne Gate, Colchester, from September 25 to October 10, at 7.30pm, with a matinee on Thursdays and Saturdays at 2.30pm. Tickets, priced £10 to £25 plus concessions, are available at www.mercurytheatre.co.uk or by calling 01206 573948.