Samuel West has a reputation for being difficult to interview, but when discussing his play Close the Coalhouse Door, he turns out to be articulate, honest and even chatty. Here he tells KATHERINE MacALISTER about his life at Oxford, student protests and the problems involved with bringing the north ‘down south’ Oxford has played a significant role in director Sam West’s life. It was while a student here at the university that he decided to give acting a go – which seems almost late in life considering his parents are renowned actors Timothy West and Prunella Scales.

So Oxford is where Sam first got up on stage and performed, where he is a patron of the Oxford Playhouse and where he now returns as director of the much-acclaimed play Close the Coalhouse Door.

A play about the doomed mining industry in the north-east may seem a strange choice for a city so far removed from the coalpits and poverty of northern England, which is exactly why Sam is keen to bring it here.

“Well hopefully Oxford will be a liberal and thoughtful audience,” he says quietly. “And although I am a southern ponce, it seems like a worthy history lesson.

“But I don’t come from a mining town [Dulwich if you’re interested] so this is a rite of passage for me, because in terms of what I believe in, it’s how I try to live my life and sums up everything I believe in. I’m a socialist and believe in the collective,” he continues earnestly.

“I was still at school when the miners’ strike was defeated, although I was still angry about it, even then,” he says, almost mournfully.

Sam’s left-wing sensibilities may seem a little at odds with his privileged past. After all, he studied at one of the most famously privileged universities in the world. But the 46-year-old was, and still is, staunchly socialist, boarding buses to campaign against the Government while residing at Lady Margaret Hall and reading English.

“I’m always suspicious of anyone who isn’t left wing at university,” he tells me, “although Michael Gove was in my year.. .and I’m suspicious of people who aren’t socialist when they are 19, it’s just not normal.

“You don’t have a mortgage but you do have a brain and it’s part of being a citizen of the world. So I joined the Socialist Workers Party as a protesting thing, boycotted the union, went to the Labour club, and had a very active time. We used to get on buses and go on demos against student fees and Clause 28,” he grins.

Between protests, Sam also discovered acting.

“There was a drama competition in the first term and we were told we had 45 minutes to do a play, and I did three and one of them won,” he remembers.

“So quite a lot of my acting career was a result of Oxford - it’s certainly where it started.

“And no, I didn’t know I was going to be an actor before then,” he pre-empts me, which seems strange when it’s blatantly obvious to the rest of us that it must be in his blood.

“I didn’t know I enjoyed it,” he explains.

“I suppose there was a calling for me to be an actor, but everyone thinks actors are well-adjusted, confident people and usually they aren’t, and don’t like themselves very much, and I was quite shy and still am really,” he adds.

“At university, playing someone else, made up for that. And then people seemed to enjoy me doing it,” says Sam modestly.

They still do by the way – he is much in demand as an actor and director.

Sam was therefore an obvious Playhouse patron choice: “Well, I’ve worked there twice as a student actor and when I was at Oxford I campaigned to keep the Playhouse open.

“It was closed down, because of funding, and in the 1980s there was a strong move against subsidised arts and people took their revenge on that,” he says, returning to rant mode again.

And then he pauses, before adding: “This is all about me! And I don’t like talking about myself. I hope this is going to be about the play?”

Yes, of course, the play indeed, tell me more.

“Well, it’s short, punchy, sexy, moving and hard-hitting. And as some young people don’t know about the miners, I felt this stood for something that needed to be revived.

“Because it’s based on celebration and community, and steeped in experience, but it’s also funny, witty and brief with beautiful singing, a strong storyline and depicts a way of life that we’ve lost.

“So it’s a dream I’ve always believed in,” he concludes, “and yet it was totally out of my comfort zone. So yes, I did have to stick my neck on the line, but maybe that’s why it’s been so exhilarating.”

* Samuel West directs Alan Plater’s Close the Coalhouse Door at Oxford Playhouse from Tuesday, June 19 to Saturday, June 23. Call the box office on 01865 305305