ROY Marsden is feeling "very stiff" after participating in a particularly star-studded football match at a friend's house over the weekend. "Bill Nighy was in goal and he was genius," the 66-year-old actor enthuses. "Rhys Ifans was in defence with me and we destroyed all the young stage hands. Philip Seymour Hoffman was there as well, playing on the actors' side."

When he is not having a knockabout with his showbiz pals, Roy has to get back to his day job, and this month that involves treading the boards at the Theatre Royal Windsor in John Godber's funny and moving play Happy Jack.

"It's a two-handed play about the relationship between a West Yorkshire miner and his wife who have been together since they were 17 and are still living in the same small pit village," Roy explains.

"They bicker and row all the time. It's great fun, and the joy for me is working with Nichola (McAuliffe) who plays my wife.

"It's a very beautiful way at looking at how their relationship has changed from the day they first met until they die. It's bitter sweet, it's funny, it's light and it's charming."

Rather than having various actors to play Jack and Liz - who are based on Godber's own grandmother and grandfather - throughout the decades, Roy and Nichola take on all the guises, and even portray some completely different characters along the way.

"There is a scene in the middle of the play where they go to a nightclub in Whitley, and Jack ends up playing the comedian on stage and Liz plays all sorts of characters as well. It's such chaos, I'm often left wondering who I am playing next."

But while Roy is having a "lovely" time playing one half of the bickering couple, he insists his stage relationship couldn't been further from his own with his long-term partner Hilary Bevan Jones, the award-winning TV producer and current BAFTA chairman.

"Hils and I have nothing whatsoever in common with Jack and Liz. Hils and I have never bickered or argued in the 16 years we have been together. I never speak to her," he jokes, referring to their crazy work commitments. "Some people survive on bickering and being illogical, some people adore it. I find it a pain in the bum."

Hilary is currently working on a new film with Richard Curtis, although Roy quips she "won't let me anywhere near the film, because they want proper actors".

Modesty aside, Roy is most definitely a "proper actor", with a CV littered with stage, television and film credits. Perhaps best known as Adam Dalgliesh in the TV dramatisation of PD James' detective novels, he is also famed for playing one-half of the Driscoll Brothers, notorious local gangsters, in Only Fools and Horses, and in the spin-off The Green Green Grass, and more recently he appeared as Sir Iain Ratalick in the hit ITV royal drama The Palace.

So, with almost 60 years in the industry, he must have come across his fair share of divas. Apparently not.

"I have been doing this job since I was eight years old and I can count on one hand the bad experiences I have had," Roy insists.

"Actors are generally nice to each other. It is only the second division that are pain. All the top liners like Ray Winstone (with whom he co-starred in Vincent and All in the Game) behave impeccably and to get the opportunity to work with actors of that talent is a joy."

With such a shining endorsement of his profession, it's no wonder Roy has no plans to start collecting his pension just yet. "I can't afford to retire," he laughs, before swiftly adding, "I just love it. I'll keep working until people won't employ me anymore. Anyway, there is no such thing as retiring, the roles just change. You don't play Hamlet anymore but you can play Polonius."

Happy Jack arrives at the Theatre Royal Windsor from Wednesday, June 18 to Saturday, June 28, 8pm. Matinees Thursday, 2.30pm and Saturday, 4.45pm.

Details: 01753 853888 or www.theatreroyalwindsor.co.uk