The Royal actor Robert Daws talks about the axing of the Yorkshire show and bringing PG Wodehouse to the stage

“Could we have gone on? Yes, we could. Both Heartbeat and The Royal were getting decent ratings, the viewers loved it, and we were all keen – and look how popular medical dramas are. Call the Midwife has been one of the biggest TV successes of recent years. But there you are, all good things come to an end…..” There’s a short pause, and Robert chuckles: “You’re going to ask if Omerod lived, aren’t you? Well, in the planning for the next series, the one that never happened, he survived. There, that might have put a few minds at rest at long last.

“One of my own personal regrets is that we all moved on – it was an extraordinarily close team, and we were all great friends – and we left lovely Yorkshire behind us, because it was all filmed either in or near Scarborough, where we did the exterior shots, and in an old dis-used maternity hospital that the NHS had closed, in Bradford.

“I always found it very funny, when we were invited to screenings before it went out on air, that you saw an ambulance coming into the hospital grounds, or maybe the lovely Denis Lill, who played Mr Rose, driving his limo into the car park, all shot in Scarborough, and then the doors to The Royal swung open, and the next scene was indoors, in Bradford. How many miles away is that? Talk about the suspension of belief. But you cannot be bitter about these things, that’s part of this profession. Series end, tours end, productions end. Fait accompli.”

Another of the joys of making the series over the years, was, of course, the fact that Dr Weatherill was played by Robert’s own real-life wife, Amy Robbins. “It was such a delight, “ he recalls, “to be able to be with our children so much, they’d come and visit as often as we could arrange it. They were perfectly at ease on a film set or in a backstage dressing room. It was all perfectly natural to them.” The couple have two daughters (Elizabeth and May) and an elder son, Benjamin, who has just left film school. “I do hope that he’s soon placed to be able to get his old man a job or two”, he jokes. “We are very much a ‘together’ family’. Then as now, a get-together on a Sunday is a must – the youngsters come over, and we can all talk, discuss things, have a laugh together, and catch up on all the news. Very normal, and such a pleasure.”

Robert, who will be 64 in May, and Amy live in Ampthill, in Bedfordshire, and they are very much involved in their local community – Robert set up a local literary festival. “It’s a great place to be, because it’s not in London or the suburbs, but it is close to them, in fact, it’s a lovely staging post for getting anywhere.”

Not that Robert will be seeing much of home at the moment, since he’s on tour with a one-man show, Wodehouse in Wonderland, which will take him across Britain, from Aberdeen to Yeovil, and, on the way, to York’s Theatre Royal. “One of the nice things about a tour is that it does take you to places that maybe you’d never been to before. I was in Ipswich the other week, never been there, ever. A very interesting and charming place. York, of course, I know very well.” He has, he says, always thought of Yorkshire as part of his DNA, because his great-great-grandfather was born in the county “back in the 1820s, and he moved from Scarborough to Bradford to work for Titus Salt at his mill, and eventually had his own boot shop. There’s an old photograph of him somewhere, with his boots all hanging over his shoulders. A one-man self-advert for his products!”

Not only was there the long-running Royal, but Robert has had the “pure luck” of being in some of the best-loved series of the past few decades. He was the pompous cricket captain Roger Dervish in Outside Edge, Sam, the owner of Cresta Cabs in Roger Roger (written by John ‘Only fools and horses’ Sullivan) and Dr Thomas Choake in Poldark. And there has been much else besides – in fact, Robert is one of those actors who never ever seems to have a day off. And, when he’s not performing, he’s also a writer. His novels The Rock, The Poisoned Rock and the latest, The Killing Rock, have all sold very well. He explains that his way of getting the story written is to “have a morning doing ‘normal’ things, then to apply myself to the words for a good long afternoon, and to conclude with a little something accompanied by a splash of Fevertree tonic at the end”.

His own acquaintance with P G (‘Plum’) Wodehouse came when was at drama school (he went to RADA) and he was concluding his final term when the actor Tom Wilkinson handed him a copy of Right Ho, Jeeves as a farewell gift. “It was such a kind thing to do. I read it from cover to cover, loved it, and then went on to read every Wodehouse I could get my hands on!” Later, he landed the role of Hildebrand ‘Tuppy’ Glossop in the Jeeves and Wooster series of the early ‘90s, opposite Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie. “I loved that part, simply loved it.”

He explains that Wodehouse in Wonderland (it’s been written by William Humble, and Robert plays every character in it), “takes place in Plum’s study, in Rochester, New York, in the late fifties, and he’s looking over, and recounting his life. He was, of course, one of the leading literary men of his time, and, indeed, is still hugely popular across the world. He was a friend to some amazing people – Jerome Kern, Cole Porter and George Gershwin among them. He wrote lyrics, and devised shows, and at one point, he was getting £40,000 a week in royalties. That’s just amazing. What would that be in today’s money? A millionaire footballer’s weekly salary I’d guess.

“To call him ‘prolific’ is a masterstroke of understatement. Ninety books, 40 plays, a huge amount of short stories. And the list of characters that he invented is phenomenal – Jeeves, Wooster, Lord Emsworth, Psmith, Roderick Glossop…..the list is endless. So many people believe that his work was all flip and light-hearted, amusing froth, but there are some of his characters which are really sharp satires

“The only thing is that I wish that, with my writing, I was as disciplined as he was. After preparation, and when he was at his height, he could write a full novel every three months. As an older man, that slowed to two a year.” Robert sighs: “Oh, if only, if only!”​​​​​​​

Wodehouse in Wonderland, Theatre Royal, York, April 20- 22. ​​​​​​​