TONY Britton, who appears in Old World at Guildford's Yvonne Arnaud Theatre next week, was in fine spirits when he spoke to The Herald about the play.

Tony is a regular at the Yvonne Arnaud, last appearing almost exactly a year ago in Somerset Maugham's The Circle, and it is one of his favourite theatres.

"It's a lovely theatre and Guildford people really know their theatre," he said.

Tony's latest Arnaud appearance in Old World sees him playing the head doctor of a sanatorium in the Latvian capital of Riga. The play, written in 1975 by Aleksei Arbuzov, chronicles the relationship between Tony's character, Rodion, and one of his patients, Lidya, played by Angela Thorne.

According to the promotional blurb, Tony plays a widowed man still grieving the loss of his wife yet cautious about revealing his emotions. Angela's character, Lydia, meanwhile, is a veteran of the stage and the circus and a whimsical eccentric.

But Birmingham-born Tony only wants to give so much away. "I don't want to say too much. It drove me mad when the Radio Times started telling you in their columns what plays were about. It's a fantastic bit of writing, very spare, and it's got a great subtext."

Tony has appeared at the Yvonne Arnaud in each of the last four years.

Tony made his professional debut aged 18 in repertory theatre in Weston Super Mare, just before he went into the army.

Shortly after he was demobbed in 1947, after four quiet years in the Royal Artillery, he became assistant stage manager at the Manchester Library Theatre, and in his early years worked for theatre companies in Edinburgh and Dublin, but it was at the Royal Shakespeare Company that he felt he'd really arrived.

"Being in the RSC and working with people like Peggy Ashcroft was the best education a young man like me could get, far better than drama school. I hate drama school."

He returned to the RSC between 1994 and 1995, appearing in Twelfth Night, Henry V and The Broken Heart.

Away from the stage, he is still probably best remembered for '80s BBC 1 sitcom Don't Wait Up, in which he and Nigel Havers played respectively father and son doctors. Tony occasionally meets up with his former co-star, sometimes at the epitome of establishment clubs, The Garrick.

He is the proud father of three grown-up children. Eldest daughter Cherie writes and directs and daughter number two is Fern, presenter of TV's Ready Steady Cook and latterly This Morning.

When he last spoke to The Herald, he told us we would be hearing a lot of his actor son, Jasper. This time round he is just as proud, recalling his son's recent RSC appearances as Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew and John Fletcher's sequel to the Shakespeare text, The Tamer Tamed.

"Your children give you many proud moments and I'm very proud of Fern and Cherie but one of the proudest moments of my life was seeing Jasper at the RSC. There was a moment of hush right at the end of the play, just before the applause, and that's when you know the audience has been moved."

Did he ever pass on any acting tips to his son?

"Very few and only when he's asked. I remember he put in for the part of the salesman in Death of a Salesman when he was only 17 and he wanted me to explain how he should perform the final scene. I went over it with him and on the night it was as though we'd gone over it for three months. It was absolutely perfect."

Aside from a family resemblance, Tony says he and his son share no similarity.

Tony has been offered two projects for when he has finished touring with Old World, neither of which strongly appeal, and he hopes something more tempting might crop up.

At 79, and still not short of job offers, does he envisage ever retiring?

"I enjoy it hugely though I've got a little cottage and sometimes I think maybe I'll give it up and do a bit of gardening."

l Old World is at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, August 4-9.