There is a certain trepidation in Peter Bowles' voice when he talks about coming to Brighton next week.

The place, he says, does very funny things to his career.

He said: "I dearly love Brighton and the Theatre Royal is one of the loveliest theatres around, full of history and charm and with such a rich and resonant atmosphere.

"But it is the one theatre which always gives me cause for some concern. Some remarkable things have happened to me in Brighton.

"Back in the Fifties I was here in the Scottish Play. Things were progressing nicely one evening when we got to the fight between the Scottish king and McDuff.

"Suddenly the blade of the king's sword came flying off right into the auditorium. You could hear it thwacking around in the air and then we all thought we could hear someone groan. But no one protested and the show didn't stop.

"The king just brought a dagger and continued the fight. But the next day a man turned up at the stage door with a bandaged head. He wasn't complaining, he wanted the company to sign the sword blade. He had been hit on the head but considered it a great honour and a privilege.

"These days you would more likely be sued.

"When I was here in Beau Brummell there were two shocks for the audience. First of all I spent most of the time with no clothes on. This was Beau in a lunatic asylum, so no fineries, just long nightshorts or nothing at all.

"The actor playing my valet who looked after me went down with pneumonia and the understudy didn't know the words. We spent the week reading the play from the script."

Our Song contains no swords and everybody knows their words. It is by Keith Waterhouse and directed by Ned Sherrin, the duo who brought us Jeffrey Bernard Is Unwell. It is a bitter-sweet tale of a romance between a middle-aged married man and a young girl.

Bowles says: It is exceedingly funny and philosophical.

"There is a young man in the play who is never seen but who is hated by my character. And the young girl herself is something of an enigma."

Bowles' first love is the theatre, where he spent 20 years before becoming a TV success in the BBC's To The Manor Born.

He says: "It was a great success but it soured relations between myself and the BBC for a long time because they wouldn't put me into a drama series for years afterwards."

His future plans include a couple of films.

Call 01273 328488 for details.