If you don't know Gordon Kennedy's face, you don't own a TV.

The Scottish actor is one of the small screen's most regularly occurring actors, having appeared in everything from Absolutely and Kiss Me Kate to Where the Heart Is and Red Cap.

Now, though, he's treading slightly more unfamiliar ground and appearing in a stage play two plays, in fact.

"It's like using a different side of your brain," he smiles, "or sprinting when you're used to playing golf!"

He's Tim in John Mortimer's Full House, a companion piece to a new translation of Eugene Ionesco's famous play, The Hairless Diva, by the same author, in which Gordon also plays Mr Smith.

"The Hairless Diva has been around since the 1950s and other translations have usually been called The Bald Soprano," explains Gordon. "It's only a one-act play so John Mortimer (Rumpole of the Bailey) wrote Full House to complement it.

"Both plays are set in the same house, but 50 years apart we're different characters in the second one but we use the same set and props and things."

Both plays are, as Gordon describes them, 'comedies of errors', but while Full House is a straightforward comic piece, Ionesco's celebrated play could be described as theatre of the absurd.

"Full House might be considered more accessible at first glance, because The Hairless Diva is quite surreal," says Gordon, "but actually, weird, absurd stuff on TV and film is quite the thing at the moment look at The League of Gentlemen and the Coen brothers' films. I think people are pretty primed for some surrealism.

"They're both definitely comedies, though. If nobody laughs, we'll lose our jobs!"

After his run at the Palace Theatre, where his co-stars include Helen Lederer and Maria McErlane (The Fast Show), Gordon will be returning to his familiar stamping ground, TV. He's committed to filming further series of the BBC drama Red Cap with ex-EastEnder Tamsin Outhwaite, but nevertheless he's enjoying the welcome change of having a stint on the stage.

"I've been able to do lots of TV for no other reason than being offered it," he says. "I didn't seek TV work in particular or enjoy it more than other types of acting. I've just been very lucky to get all the work I have.

"I studied physical education at college so I could have gone on to do that. But what inspired me to get into acting, or comedy at least, was when I was growing up in Edinburgh and seeing the festival. The whole city turns into Rio di Janeiro for a month and my friends and I wanted to be part of it."

His story is enough to inspire anyone hoping to get on in the acting world by talent alone. "I'm not a formally trained actor," he explains. "You could say I came in through the back door!"

John Mortimer's Full House and Eugene Ionesco's The Hairless Diva will be at the Palace Theatre Watford from Friday April 12 to Saturday May 4. Performances are at 7.45pm Monday to Thursday and at 8pm Friday and Saturday with matinees on selected Saturdays and Wednesdays.

Call the box office on 01923 225671 to book tickets.