Hugo Speer shot to fame taking his clothes off in the hit British film The Full Monty, where he played the generously endowed Guy.

However, the glamorous career in the movies he thought he might gain has turned out to be nothing of the sort.

I caught up with the Yorkshire-born actor while he was rehearsing his first theatre venture at the Theatre Royal, Bath, where he is at last getting a touch of glamour thanks to Sir Peter Hall and Noel Coward.

He said: "When The Full Monty hit the big time I thought the glamour days had arrived. I was wrong.

"We all got pretty dusty in the film but since then things have got worse.

"I have been covered in mud and more recently covered in more mud as well as war paint.

"Who was it told me a film actor's life was glamorous?

"In Deathwatch I played a First World War infantry sergeant spending most of my time crawling through mud and slime.

"That was when I wasn't sitting in a rat-infested, smelly and haunted bunker in the middle of No Man's Land with explosions going off all round me.

"And I'm just back from Romania where I have been filming Boudicca and that was done in almost continual rain.

"I had to fight in the mud, wear dirty clothes which were almost rags and mostly made of smelly animal skins.

"The food was dreadful and the people were unfriendly.

"I had to get up at 4am and smother myself in blue dye and be done up in war paint and then spend hours up to my knees in mud wielding a huge sword or riding horses through muddy fields.

"Still, I did get to snog ER's Alex Kingston who is playing Boudicca, so I guess it was all worth it.

"Snogging Alex - I play her chief warrior and lover Dervaloc - was great."

While Deathwatch is out on DVD and video and Boudicca gets a television release in November, Hugo continues to reminisce about his grim working conditions.

He said: "I thought life would be cleaner when I signed up for ITV's Sons and Lovers but they cast me as a dour Yorkshire miner Walter Morel, grouchy father of Paul Morel.

"I had to be covered in grime for this part because Walter was a miner.

"I had coal dust rubbed into my skin and there was no Alex Kingston around to do it for me!"

Hugo is thankful that his first two stage roles are much, much cleaner.

He is about to take Harold Pinter's Betrayal into London and, before that, is donning Thirties clothes for Noel Coward's Design For Living.

He said: "At last a job where I can keep clean and be directed by Sir Peter Hall. I guess this is a dream come true.

"I feel like sitting at his feet and just saying 'tell me all, master'. He is a fantastic man to work for, really good.

"He explains everything but also listens to what you have to say about the role.

"He is very calm, very generous with his time and is knowledge and very wise in matters theatrical.

"I really do not believe my stage debut could be in better hands.

"I feel like sitting at his feet and saying 'tell me all, master'."

Hugo plays Otto, a painter involved with a sculptor and an interior designer.

All three, two men and the girl, are in love with each other and cannot live without each other, although none of them knows it.

It is one of Noel Coward's most glittering comedies and the action move rapidly from London to Paris to New York.

It is a tale of characters swearing undying devotion to the other before moving into bed with the next.

Hugo said: "It certainly scandalised the audience of 1932 when it was first seen.

"It was banned for a bit. I think people will love it. Stage is different from filming.

"On stage, you have to learn the script before you start and follow it through.

"In the world of films you might just have to learn a few pages of script for the shooting the following day and you don't necessarily shoot the scenes chronologically.

"You might shoot the ending one day, opening scene the next and a middle one the day after.

"Also, you don't have to get up at some unearthly hour to be in make-up or on set. The theatre is much more civilised."

Ten years ago Hugo, now 35, was almost broke and living in Preston Circus, Brighton.

He was fresh out of drama school, had done some commercials for television but was looking for film work.

He said: "I was doing anything, labouring, bar work, all sorts.

"Then I did some work in The Bill, Heartbeat, Thieftakers and Men Behaving Badly. Slowly and gradually I was making a bit of a name for myself.

"My film debut was Bhaji On The Beach and then The Full Monty came along.

"No one had any idea it was going to be such a hit but it became the biggest British film since Four Weddings and a Funeral.

"It struck a chord with audiences worldwide. I think this take of redundant workmen picking themselves up off the bottom of the scrapheap rang bells for so many people.

"Mind you, doing that final striptease was frightening. I could never do it for a living. But we did have great fun doing it, a lot of it fuelled by copious amounts of brandy and champagne.

"To be honest a bunch of blokes without clothes on is pretty comical. How can anyone take us seriously?

"There were about 350 women in the audience. They were very vociferous, very energetic and very mad. They were brilliant.

"We all knew we would have to get down to our birthday suits when we first took the job. But when we were still backstage and first heard them screaming for us we were petrified!

"All of us went very pale. We looked at each other and tried to pluck up all our courage.

"We did it as a one take job with six cameras running. The best thing was that the audience hadn't been told we were going for the full strip so, when the final piece went, we got an absolutely genuine response. But when we finish we all just bolted back to the dressing room."

Hugo was born and brought up in Yorkshire. His mother was a teacher and his father a retired Jockey Club official.

Hugo recalled: "I did the usual run of school plays while I was growing up but I think I went a bit crazy when my parents divorced and sort of dropped out.

"I failed all my A-levels and just drifted for a while until finally going to the Arts Educational School in London.

"Whether I am a natural I don't really know. I treat acting as a job and don't hang out much in showbiz circles."

Design For Living, also starring Janie Dee and Aden Gillett, opens at the Theatre Royal on Monday.

It runs until Saturday, September 6, nightly at 7.45pm with matinees on Thursday and Saturday at 2.30pm. Tickets £13 to £22. Call 01273 328488.