THE voice on the other end of the phone is unmistakably Liverpudlian. Brookside and Holby City actor Mark Moraghan wouldn’t have it any other way.

He refuses to lose his accent, although he doesn’t always use it in his acting roles. “I am proud of my roots,” says Mark, who will be performing in York for a week from next Monday.

“I disapprove of actors who change their accents. I know quite a few who have done it and shall remain nameless. You should be proud of your roots and embrace your roots.”

Not that he always acts in his native tongue. He is at present playing Dr Frankenstein with an RP [received pronunciation] accent in A Nightmare On Lime Street at Liverpool’s Royal Court and becomes American for his next stage role as the bigoted boss in 9 To 5: The Musical.

He debuts in the show on opening night at York’s Grand Opera House next Monday, taking over the role from Ben Richards for three months. “You always put your own mark on it,” he says of stepping into someone else’s shoes. “Ben and I are totally different. He’s probably 20 years younger than me but he’s a mate so it’s nice. He brings his own style to it.”

The role of Franklin Hart is a challenge because he’s all the things Moraghan likes to think he’s not: a sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot of a boss. But the baddie is always the best part, he adds.

“9 To 5 is a great film and a very popular film. Dolly Parton’s songs in the musical are brilliant, real foot-tappers. I can’t claim to be her biggest fan but the show stuff is amazing.”

Mark likes the versatility that doing theatre roles offers, and he missed the stage during a string of parts in television series, playing Greg Shadwick in Brookside, Ray Wyatt in Dream Team and Owen Davies in Holby City. After a decade on the small screen, he returned to the theatre, including a role in the West End show Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert.

He wasn’t playing one of the three drag artists who led the cast, however. He was Bob, the straight man. He auditioned for one of the leads, the role played in the film in a frock by Terence Stamp.

“I was so wrong for the part, so unfeminine when I auditioned. Everyone was coming out of the toilet dressed in full drag and I was in ordinary clothes,” he recalls.

The show nevertheless saw him return to musicals, where his stage work began. “In primary school all the shows I was in were musicals, then TV took over and I put music on the back burner,” says Mark.

When he broke his femur in a charity football match, he missed out on an acting role and did the BBC singing competition Just The Two Of Us instead. He came second, signing with Atomic Kitten’s Natasha Hamilton. Coming up is a date singing with the Liverpool Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in an evening of James Bond music.

• 9 To 5: The Musical, Grand Opera House, York, February 4 to 9. Box office: 0844 871 3024 or atgtickets.com/york