Vicki Michelle is on top form when we speak. Yet despite her enthusiasm for the touring production of Allo Allo, she initially turned down the revived role, thinking she'd been there and done that.

"Well I had hadn't I?" she laughs, "and I've got the T-shirt. But they soon talked me into it and I'm glad they did. Because we have people in the audience begging us to stop because their sides are splitting and there's no better noise than an entire audience crying with laughter.

"But it's schoolboy humour isn't it, the kind where you don't even realise you're laughing and for me that's the best sort of humour.

"But then I laughed when I read the original script as well which is always a good sign."

Of course not just anyone can play comic roles and Vicki, 58, succeeds where many others have failed. So is it something you can just learn?

"Oh no it's inherent and you just know, I always had that. But then working with all the greats helped hugely — like The Two Ronnies, Ken Dodd, Little and Large and Cannon and Ball, who were the best in the business, so I was always watching them in rehearsals."

So has fame ever gone to her head?

"No, I live in Essex just down the road from my mum and my three sisters and they keep my feet firmly on the ground," she laughs.

"I was born and bred there and only thought of moving once at the peak of Allo Allo. We (her husband and daughter) found this gorgeous house in Sunningdale with a huge garden and then just before we signed on the dotted line, I thought 'this is two hours away from my family, they aren't going to just pop round to see me any more.'

"And I thought about why I was moving and realised it was because it was what was expected of me, so we stayed where we were.

"So yes, you do learn who your real friends are very quickly in this business," she says, "but it's never been intrusive. What can be more lovely than someone coming up and saying 'love the show'.

"And it's always the nice people who last longer in this business," she adds smiling. Vicki Michelle will be around for a lot longer then ...

James Rossman is coming home.

And this time the 22-year-old is playing a lead role in one of the UK's best loved comedy classics. So how does it feel?

"I'll be quaking in my boots actually because it's my home town. But it's exciting at the same time.

"My dad is coming every night we're there and my aunt and uncle are driving up from Wales especially, but although I've played at the New Theatre before it wasn't as a lead."

James is having to come to terms with his success fast and gets asked for his autograph already, but he's trying to be as level-headed as possible about it.

"I am just lucky to be working," he says.

The Wolvercote lad, who attended the Cherwell School and then got a degree in Guildford before winning the part in Allo Allo, went to the Vera Legge School of Performing Arts in Oxford, which helped mould his talents.

"I was eight when the bug got hold," James remembers.

"And I was starting to get noticed in school plays, so people suggested the Vera Legge School to my parents and I was there for five years in all.

"So even when I was young I was in Pickwick with Harry Secombe and Ruth Maddock at the New Theatre and then Peter Pan with Toyah Wilcox, before choosing a musical theatre degree. I just enjoy all aspects of the theatre and I didn't want to pigeon-hole myself. It seems to me that in this profession it's best to have as many strings to your bow as possible."

So is James a big Allo Allo fan?

"Well, when I went for the auditions I was a bit daunted because there were six of us auditioning for the part of Herr Flick, but I got it and it's my first tour, so it's fantastic."

Allo Allo opens at the New Theatre on Thursday. Box office on 0844 8471588