MOST actors need to be versatile, but Shaun Williamson takes it to a whole new level.

Mainstream soap star, cult comedy actor, children’s television performer and West End musical singer.

Rather annoyingly, he’s been pretty good at all of them.

He says modestly: “You’ve got to keep your hand in because you never know when the next job is going to come along.”

As it happens, the next job starts at the Mercury Theatre, in Colchester, at the end of the month.

It’s a tour of a new play, Rhinestone Mondays, and Shaun plays the part of a barman with a penchant for country music.

“When I read the script there were a couple of parts I quite fancied, one of which was Barry the barman,” he says. “He’s got some very funny lines, but I think I’ve played enough Barrys in my life already, so I asked them whether they could change his name, which they did.”

Rhinestone Mondays follows the fortunes of the members of Warbleswick Monday Night All Star Line Dancing Club as they fight and feud.

As well as Shaun, the cast features Lyn Paul, from Seventies band the New Seekers, and Ian H Watkins and Faye Tozer, from pop group Steps.

“It’s exciting being in a show that has never been seen before,” says Shaun. “It really means you can make the character your own.

“We’ve also got a great cast, including Lyn Paul. I was a massive New Seekers fan, so I’m going to be boring her a bit.

“I never like to stray away from the stage for too long. I love performing live. There’s a massive safety net on telly, but you’re the master of your own destiny when the curtain goes up on the stage.”

Shaun is equally adept on either.

Pretty much straight after leaving drama school, Shaun landed a part in EastEnders as Barry, very much the tragic comic figure who got as many laughs as tears during his ten-year stay.

His association with the EastEnders character led, rather bizarrely, to another big show – Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant’s comedy, Extras.

“I was a big fan of the Office and when Ricky phoned me I thought it was a prank at first,” Shaun laughs.

“They explained what it was all about, and that I would be playing this loser kind of a character, but that was the irony. I was playing a loser, but on the hottest show on telly!”

After Extras, Shaun landed a small part in Ricky Gervais’s big Hollywood movie, the Invention of Lying. He is also soon to be appearing in Gervais and Merchant’s new mockumentary, Life’s Too Short, which features Harry Potter actor Warwick Davis.

“I owe those guys so much and you learn so much just by being around them,” he says. “It’s so effortless and fun.”

His telly work doesn’t stop there.

Those with children will perhaps know Shaun from the hit CBBC show, Scoop, in which he plays bumbling journalist Digby Digworth, alongside Hacker T Dog.

Shaun started acting a little later in life, going to drama school at 27. Before that, he was in the Royal Navy, was a postman and worked in Safeway supermarket.

“It’s funny how life turns out,” says Shaun. “I was about to go on a manager’s training course at Safeway, so if Webber Douglas (his drama school) hadn’t taken me on, I would probably still be working there. Well not there, because I think Morrisons took them over. So as a manager in Morrisons, perhaps.”

Rhinestone Mondays, Mercury Theatre, Balkerne Gate, Colchester, August 31 until September 10,7.30pm and 2.30pm. £9.80 to £21.75. 01206 573948, www.mercurytheatre.co.uk