NIGEL Havers wins out within minutes of meeting the actor, revealing a deliciously disparaging side to his character.

How can you not warm to a man when he calls it as he sees it, trashing unkind theatre critics and talentless TV stars?

We’re chatting in Swindon where the actor with the cut glass vowels, who once starred in Chariots Of Fire, is starring in Oscar Wilde’s classic, The Importance of Being Earnest.

His criticism of a certain critic comes about when we talk about this version of Earnest, which is in fact a play within a play.

Nigel came up with the idea of Ernest being staged by an am-dram group. And it just so happens the members of the village amateur theatre company are not in the first flush.

“It was the only way we could do it,” he says, smiling.

“Martin Jarvis and I did the play before at the National, but that was thirty years ago and this was the only way we could come up with to let us play the parts again.”

Indeed. The characters they play, Algernon Moncrieff and Jack Worthing are in their mid-twenties.

But was it concerning to begin with, playing around with something so sacrosanct as an Oscar Wilde play?

“No, I was very confident it would work. And the audience we get is of a certain age. They will go with the idea because it’s about them.”

He adds; “Most of the critics have said they liked the idea, except for Charles Spencer of the Telegraph.”

It’s probably best not to fully repeat what the actor said of the London critic, except to say he suggested the journalist’s copy to be liberated by libation.

And it’s not as if Nigel is alien to the workings of the law. (He’s the son of Michael Havers, a barrister who became Lord Chancellor in 1987. His grandfather sir Cecil havers and his elder brother Philip Havers QC had prominent legal careers.)

“Spencer said; ‘How dare you mess with Oscar Wilde?’ What a pathetic thing to say. As if no one ever ‘messed’ with Shakespeare? Of course they have, and the results have been terrific.”

He adds, still in full flow; “This play works. And we do not mess with Oscar. There is not a word changed.”

Nigel reveals a lot of people haven’t seen the original play.

“They think this is the way it’s meant to be done. Or else they come knowing the play and they wonder why there are a several slightly older people on stage.”

Nigel Havers has the on-stage energy of a twenty six year-old, so much so you do forget that while he’s on stage the 64 year-old is pretending to be a 26 year-old.”

“But the other problems you have when producing a show like this is finding an actor who can play the 26 year-old in an Oscar Wilde play.

“Many of them come straight out of drama school and go into EastEnders and assume they can act. But they can’t.

“So it’s hard to find the right people.”

The play certainly has that, in particular Sian Phillips, whose Lady Bracknell has to be seen.

The Glasgow run is the final in the series.

“I love Glasgow,” he offers. “I’ve been up there recently for a new comedy, Stop Start, written by Jack Docherty.

“I know Glasgow so well and it’s changed so much for the better. I remember being there in 1982 and it was a bit rough but it’s great now. And audiences are great.”

Has acting giving him all he hoped for?

“I don’t know what else I would have done,” he admits.

He could have gone into Law, as most of his family seemed to have done.

“Oh, no, it’s so boring!” he exclaims. “And acting is never that.”

Nigel has played a range of posh charmers over his life. And the TV world was surprised when he walked into Coronation Street.

Which part could he possibly play? It turned out he was delightful as conman Lewis Archer, the smoothie who woos Audrey and whisks off with the cash.

“Well, I’ve been a Corrie fan all my life,” he says, “so I was delighted to be asked to join. And the storylines are very clever.”

He managed to retain the twinkle in his eye he’s so famous for.

“They thought they’d bring back a modern day version of The Charmer,” he says of his Eighties TV series. “And it seemed to work.”

Will he go back?

“Well, I took Gail for forty grand,” he says, grinning of his character’s grand theft. “And he has to have his comeuppance.”

After the Glasgow adventure he’s starring in panto in Swindon, in Dick Whittington

“I love playing the baddie and the chance to break the fourth wall. ‘Hello madam. You look lovely. Who does your hair – the council?’

“It’s great fun. In fact, I love all forms of acting, even though my wife doesn’t think it’s a proper job.”

• The Importance of Being Earnest, The Theatre Royal, until Saturday.