'No rest for the wicked' says actor who played Coronation Street's cannabis cake-eating bishop and is donning the dog collar for Dronfield Players' 80th anniversary show

So it’s fitting that Roger is donning the dog collar again to play a bishop in Dronfield Players' 80th anniversary production.

Roger, who is also directing the play See How They Run next week, said: "I couldn't find anyone suitable for the bishop so I thought I'd do that as well....no rest for the wicked!"

Despite lighting up television screens in prime-time series, performing in 19 professional productions on national tours and treading the boards in more than 80 amateur shows, Roger has never lost sight of his Derbyshire roots.

He said: “"I've always looked on myself as a Dronfielder," he said. "For the first 25 years of my life I lived in the town.”

It was with Dronfield Players that Roger cut his teeth as an actor, treading the boards in a handful of plays during the Sixties.

Half a century later he has been persuaded to return to the company by his cousin Alison Pashley. Roger, 76, said: “Alison and her husband John are the oldest remaining stalwarts of the group. John is in the play with me and also acting as assistant director.”

While Roger played a bearded clergyman in Coronation Street, the facial hair he has sported for much of his professional career will have to be shaved off for the play. He is cast as the Bishop of Lax in a comedy of mistaken identities set during the Second World War. Roger said: "In the Forties none of the clergy had beards.”

Roger grew his whiskers during the Nineties for the role of Badger in Wind in the Willows and has only shaved off his beard a couple of times for television roles. He said: "I've done a lot of telly including Peak Practice, Heartbeat, All Creatures Great and Small.”

Latterly, he landed a cameo role in the Disney Plus update of The Full Monty, filmed on his doorstep in Sheffield. Roger, who lives in Ranmoor, said: "I play a character called Old Andy in a betting shop which Robert Carlyle and his son go into."

Sheffield is also where Roger played one of his favourite roles. He said: "When the Crucible reopened ten or eleven years ago I landed a part in Enemy Of The People playing Anthony Sher's father in law."

Roger has racked up a huge list of credits on stage. He said: "I have done my fair share of shows at Chesterfield's Pomegranate. I did two or three different plays for Tabs Productions. I had my own company called A61 and directed a couple of plays there that were on tour there including The Dresser with Melvyn Hayes.

"I've done national tours, from Noddy and Fireman Sam to A Winter's Tale and Chekhov."

Roger spent two years at the National Theatre where he performed in Trelawny Of The Wells, Night of the Iguana and Pygmalion. He said: "It was a great experience. I remember being shown around the dressing rooms and saw the names on the door and thought, crikey, I'm the only one here that people have never heard of."

He credits his mum Edith for his love of the theatre. "My mum was always very arty - she did three or four plays with Dronfield Players in its first couple of years.” As a youngster, Roger recalls taking part in Dronfield Gala and Cycle Parade dressed as Muffin the Mule and Andy Pandy in costumes made by his mum. “The die was cast,” he said.

A few years later he performed in panto at Dronfield Church, doubling up with friend David Roe to play the Broker’s Men. Roger then followed in his mother’s footsteps by joining Dronfield Players in the Sixties when he did a handful of plays with the company.

Marriage took him to Sheffield where he continued to pursue his love of acting in various amateur companies before turning professional at the age of 36.

See How They Run is at Dronfield Civic Hall from March 22 to 25, nightly at 7.30pm with a Saturday matinee at 2pm. Tickets £10, call 01246 913237 or go to www.dronfieldplayers.com