I was nervous about even speaking to Alex Ferns. One look into those ice-cold blue eyes and I feared the worst.

So I reminded myself that his most famous part - Trevor in EastEnders - "Britain's most-hated soap villain" was only a character he played, and that Alex is here to talk to me about his latest role in an Agatha Christie play.

He can't tell me too much about And Then There Were None, coming to the Oxford Playhouse from Monday, because it's a whodunnit, but still the doubt persisted, his Scottish accent bringing back those awful scenes of domestic violence inflicted on his wife Little Mo.

But once Alex, 39, is talking about his real-life wife (his childhood sweetheart), his two sons and his South African upbringing, I soon forget about his chilling TV persona. And to be honest, however famous Trevor was, Alex is still dogged by him, even though the role made him a household name.

"In terms of theatre and films, it hasn't been a problem, but as for TV, it's going to take someone with real balls to give me the chance to show what I can do and play a sensitive character, because so many casting directors just can't get past Trevor," he says.

So did Alex realise at the time what an enormous effect Trevor and the wife-beating story-line had on the nation?

"I was interviewed by Graham Norton and afterwards he said 'come with me' and we went to an atrium on the South Bank, where they had erected a massive screen and hundreds of people had gathered to watch EastEnders and the demise of my character and that's when it really hit me and I realised how the story had sparked the public's imagination. It was unbelievable."

Alex won numerous awards for his role as Trevor, even though his part was only supposed to last for a day.

"I was in a bad mood when I went for the audition and was sick to death of being an unemployed actor, so I think that helped," he laughs.

He has had some memorable parts since EastEnders, in Low Winter Sun and Making Waves, but it was a very different story when Alex arrived in London as a 29-year-old actor looking for work.

"By that age, you should be established and everyone should know who you are. I was fresh off the plane from South Africa. But luckily I had a really good agent, so after a few years of menial jobs selling insurance, the parts started trickling in."

Alex left Glasgow for South Africa aged 11, because his parents were struggling to find work in Scotland, and South Africa was seen as a land of opportunity.

"At the time they were encouraging people to emigrate, because they really needed artisans and my dad was an electrician.

"I was getting ready to go to high school at the time, so it was a real wrench for me to move, and in the days of apartheid we often had a police guard at the end of our street."

He met his wife Jennifer there and they moved to London when he realised his only chance to blossom as an actor was to come back to Blighty. So did he ever doubt his choice of career?

Alex bursts out laughing: "All the time. But it's what I always wanted to do, so you keep plodding on and then something comes up and you have renewed faith in the industry."

Bizarrely, the part Alex is playing in the Agatha Christie play is the same part he played over 20 years ago in South Africa, at school.

So is he another baddie? "I can't give too much away," he says, "but I never saw Trevor as a baddie, he was never that black and white to me. I just got myself into that zone and played him, but I didn't judge him. I left that to everyone else."

And Then There Were None is at the Oxford Playhouse from Monday, 30 June until Saturday, 5 July. Call the box office on 01865 305305 or see www.oxfordplayhouse.com