Neil Pearson is used to working with the best - Leonard Rossiter, John Cleese, Renée Zellweger and Hugh Grant among them - so when he pays tribute to his latest co-stars in Old Times, which comes to Richmond Theatre next week, it is high praise indeed.

It is vital that Battersea-born Pearson builds up a good chemistry with Janie Dee and Susannah Harker in this dark and erotic Harold Pinter play. So, did he have to work very hard to achieve that?

"No, I didn't," said Pearson. "Janie and Susannah are very good actresses which makes it easy to work well together and build up a chemistry between us. Judging by the reaction of the audiences we have played to so far, we must have got it right.

"It helps having a good writer and director - and who could ask for more than having Harold Pinter and Peter Hall?

"Peter has done 13 or 14 Pinter plays before so he has a great insight. I've worked with him before so I knew that I would be in safe hands. With Peter, when he talks, you listen."

Pearson, 47, has no objection to switching from the randy TV roles he played in Drop The Dead Donkey and Between The Lines during the 1990s, and Bridget Jones' Diary and its sequel on the big screen, to a straight part in Old Times.

He explains: "I enjoy a mixture of comedy and dramatic roles. To use a football analogy, I see myself as a utility player who can do both.

"I have been lucky to work regularly in a variety of stage, TV and film productions.

"There are two or three actors who are first choice for virtually everything, so I can't complain about what I've been offered.

"It's been a great experience working with so many good professionals, including two of the comedy greats in Leonard Rossiter and John Cleese."

In Old Times the versatile Pearson plays filmmaker Deeley, whose contented married life with wife Kate (Dee) becomes disrupted when Kate's old friend Anna (Harker) comes to stay at their farmhouse.

Suddenly, a mesmerising and dangerous love triangle develops.

Pearson reveals: "It is possible that the play will go into the West End. I've got nothing in the can so it's all riding on this.

"It's the uncertainty that draws many actors into the profession in the first place. You don't go into it if you don't like anti-social hours or need to know what is going to happen next.

"One thing is certain - we won't be reviving Drop the Dead Donkey. The cast all went on to other things after eight years together, so it would be difficult to bring everyone back again."

That means we won't again see Neil's character, Dave Charnley, the associate editor of Globe Link and general office dogsbody, given the impossible editing jobs, like finding pictures of Boris Yeltsin looking sober or Jeffrey Archer not looking smug.

Old Times; Richmond Theatre, The Green, Richmond; Monday to Saturday, April 2-7, 7.45pm (Wed & Sat mat 2.30pm), £12-25; for tickets call the box office 0870 0606651, visit richmondtheatre.net.