‘He’s a bit of a jobsworth, is Frank Tollit; he’s been head of installation at his company for some time and there’s nothing he doesn’t know about putting up P-9s, which are individual isolators.” Thus actor Stephen Tompkinson, in his deadpan Northern voice, telling me about the clearly exciting lead role he takes in the new comedy Sign of the Times, which closes a nationwide tour at the Oxford Playhouse next week.

There is more to the man who makes his living mounting huge neon signs on the sides of buildings. “He wants to be the next John le Carré and uses times at work when he’s all alone recording his latest novel into his Dictaphone; called A False Hem in the Iron Curtain. It gives you an impression of what quality of writer he is! It’s just a kind of dream that he harbours.”

But life changes when Frank has to impart all his professional knowledge to Alan, a young work experience apprentice, and five years later, there’s something of a role change for both the characters, when Frank is threatened with redundancy.

The play (by Tim Firth, who wrote Calendar Girls) has had a history. Although this is its premiere, Firth was originally commissioned by Alan Ayckbourn to write it back in 1991 as a 40-minuter for his theatre in Scarborough. Firth did so, but then wanted to develop it into a longer piece of work.

This is the fourth time Stephen Tompkinson has appeared in work by Firth, in television and on stage, and he’s a mighty fan.

“I think working with people like Ayckbourn and Willy Russell and Jack Rosenthal didn’t do him any harm as a writer. He has a certain every-person quality and can appeal to both sexes and all age ranges — a fantastic writer, using strengths similar to those of Victoria Wood and Alan Bennett.”

Tompkinson’s breakthrough TV role was as the appalling star reporter Damien Day in Drop The Dead Donkey (1990-98), but he first made his mark on radio, appearing in 54 plays in seven months as a member of the BBC Radio Drama Company.

“It was just the best training,” he says, “helping you hone your vocal talents to try and make dialogue as entertaining as possible.

“You’re performing to an audience of one, because the listener has to do so much of the work as to where the play’s set, what the characters look like and no two people are going to share exactly the same vision.”

A British Comedy Award best actor gong as Damien made people believe that Tompkinson was ready for leads and in 1996 he was about the last person to be cast for a curious-sounding venture called Ballykissangel.

“They’d spent months getting all the people in the village correct, which was right in that they would have to look like they’d lived together for some time and then along comes the English priest — the fish-out-of-water character. I think I finally got the nod on the Thursday and started filming on Monday.”

Deadpan again, and maybe with a hint of poetic licence, but the show (with attendant publicity that propelled Tompkinson’s private life into tabloid focus) was a huge success.

In recent years, the actor has transferred his location preferences from Ireland to South Africa — where four seasons of the ITV vet series Wild At Heart have been shot. Tompkinson, who recently also took on a role as an executive producer on the show, wasn’t in the least defensive when I suggested that it was, well, a bit cosy after all the edgy roles he’s played.

“Again, there’s the fish/water element which is always interesting to watch, and I hope viewers do get involved in the family story end of things, and, of course, all the beautiful animals. It seemed to tick the boxes for perfect family Sunday-night viewing. When you’re going for that big audience, it’s actually a lot harder than it seems. Anyway, there hadn’t been a programme like it since Daktari, for God’s sake! Poor old Clarence!”

With seamless luck, Stephen Tompkinson is about to be seen back in Africa, in a different setting: the initial idea of canoeing 1,000-miles up the Zambezi didn’t enthral him, so he’s floating in a balloon up in the sky, crossing Tanzania, Rwanda, Botswana and Namibia, and landing (occasionally in hairy circumstances) to look at — you’ve guessed it — beautiful animals.

That starts on TV at the end of next week — one day after Tompkinson closes at the Playhouse at a slightly lower altitude.

Sign of the Times runs from Monday to next Saturday. Playhouse box office: 01865 305305 (www.oxfordplayhouse.com).