FORMER Time Lord Colin Baker talks to Kerry Ann Eustice about his long career in entertainment, his love for Alan Ayckbourn's comedy and his weekly column with News Shopper's sister paper in his home town High Wycombe.

As you would expect from any one-time Doctor Who, Colin has great presence, charisma and a booming yet endearing very thespian-like voice.

No stranger to Bromley, or many other theatres for that matter, Colin has worked at the Churchill Theatre many times and returns this month in Ayckbourn's Bedroom Farce.

He said: "Last time I was here was precisely a year ago.

"We were doing Strangers on a Train. And few years before that Corpse. I commute from High Wycombe. It's a schlep, as I have to take, whisper it, the M25.

"The theatre has always been well-attended here. Bromley likes its theatre and supports it.

"It's good to start somewhere, especially when you've got a comedy, you know you're going to get a reaction."

Bedroom Farce, a comic assault on the middle-class, revolves around three couples and the conversations and encounters within their three bedrooms.

Colin explained: "There are three couples, one you might term as young. One of the men has parents played by me and Louise Jameson.

"All of the action takes place in our bedroom, everything is in bedrooms. First we go out for dinner and it's the whole thing of the husband waiting for wife to get ready and the wife saying how he is to behave when they're out. Then there is the post mortem on it and then we're invaded by the barmy daughter-in-law."

At this point Colin pauses and picks up my digital dictophone.

"Well, that's like a little phone, isn't it?" he said.

Surely Doctor Who should be accustomed to such technology? Luckily for Bromley, he is far more familiar with Ayckbourn's work.

He continued: "Well Alan Ayckbourn is a genius. I've done four Ayckbourn plays and they have always been the best fun I've ever had.

"I'm quite disciplined on stage in the sense I don't corpse easily but Ayckbourn is the closest I've ever got.

"You're not supposed to laugh because you're there in the middle of it. But I defy any third party not to laugh.

"Ayckbourn has a superb ear. Like Victoria Wood who captures a certain element of British society, Ayckbourn has got the middle class nailed to the wall, dissected and pumped dry of every inch of humour available and there's a lot of it.

"I've never been to an Ayckbourn I haven't enjoyed and never taken part in one the audience haven't enjoyed. It's the main ingredient for success I think, Alan Ayckbourn."

Starring opposite Colin is former EastEnder Natalie Cassidy and another former Albert Square resident Louise Jameson who takes the role of Delia, the wife of Colin's character Ernest. Colin and Louise have worked together many times before and it was Colin who urged Louise to take this part.

Colin said: "Around 90 per cent of what I do (in Bedroom Farce) is with Louise Jameson, who I know terribly well. We've worked together two or three times before and we're great friends. We even have a show we do together called Love Letters.

"This means rehearsals will be fun. She's always ticking me off for misbehaving."

Work keeps coming for Colin but off-stage he is just as busy, which he likes. He's recently come back from Barcelona and before that was in LA for a Doctor Who convention.

He said: "I write a bit. I have a weekly column in my paper the Bucks Free Press in High Wycombe. I have been writing it for the past 12 years."

The < a href="http://www.thisislocallondon.co.uk/indepth/colinbakercolumn/">column also appears on Local London.

"I write what I like, whatever rings my chimes that week. I'm a grumpy old man you see.

"I also write children's musicals. I wrote the best-selling musical for schools last year and I've another out this year called Daughter Christmas."

And, as if that wasn't enough, Colin submitted an entry for the Eurovision Song Contest last year.

He said: "I got down to the last 20. I entered via the Song Writers Union. My entry was unabashed pop. My daughter did the vocals on it."

He may not still travel through time but he knows how to fill it.

  • Bedroom Farce, April 26 to May 5. The Churchill Theatre, Bromley. Box office 0870 060 6620.