YOU could predict which role Leslie Grantham would be playing in a stage version of Jimmy Perry and David Croft’s beloved Dad’s Army, yet he was initially uncertain whether he should step into the spiv suit and correspondent brogues of Private Walker.

“When I was first sent the scripts three or four years ago, I was flattered and thought how lucky I was, but then the doubts start because you think, ‘Am I supposed to do an impersonation of Jimmy Beck?’,” says Leslie.

However, the former EastEnders soap star surmounted those doubts and Perry and Croft’s first quartet of hand-picked stage adaptations of their cherished television shows, Dad’s Army: Lost Episodes, was duly cheered to the rafters.

“As soon as we walked on, the audience burst into spontaneous applause, and you couldn’t help but notice that everyone in the front two rows was dressed as Captain Mainwaring or Sergeant Wilson,” says Leslie. “The theatre had even taped up the windows and put in sandbags for a wartime atmosphere.”

The live show proved so popular that Perry and Croft have dusted off four more half-hour episodes from their BBC comedy series for another tour: Dad’s Army Marches On, whose next stop will be the Grand Opera House, York.

Buoyed by the success of the first production, Leslie was quick to sign up again, happy to draw on the memories of last time.

“I don’t read reviews – no one ever put a blue plaque up for a critic, did they? – but the reaction was incredible. Sometimes people came three times in a week, bringing their children or their parents, and the last night each week would be like being at the pantomime,” he says.

“It gave Perry and Croft a new lease of life, so they wanted to do four more for another show, but how do you choose from 80 episodes, especially when they’re in their 80s now?”

Nevertheless, the writers made their choices of further misadventures of the Walmington-on-Sea Home Guard platoon, including their own favourites, Branded and Mum’s Army, a parody of Brief Encounter.

Once more, in the first month of the tour, the new show has been going down gloriously well. “The audience are in hysterics, and when their favourites come on they’re cheering. There’s such a buzz,” says Leslie.

“I think it’s because it’s a family show, with no bad language, though there a few double meanings, but there’s nothing offensive… well, apart from for the Germans.

“It’s not Ibsen, it’s not Chekhov; it’s in the tradition of end-of-the-pier, where people come for a laugh and most of them shout out the favourite phrases – and it just works.”

Leslie believes the show is a welcome antidote to the doom and gloom.

“Between you and me, there’s sod all on the telly, unless you’re a cook or have something old in your attic; we’re all having a hard time and the weather’s been rotten, but Dad’s Army harks back to a time when we had pride in our nation, which is something we don’t seem to have now,” he says.

“Dad’s Army is the little man up against all the odds and that’s what we’re up against today: the little man up against the banks.”

Leslie is savouring playing Private Walker again.

“Did you know he was Jimmy Perry’s favourite character? He’s in the tradition of the wheeler-dealer cheeky chappie, going back to Charlie Chaplin, Max Miller, Del Boy, Den Watts even,” he says, drawing comparison with his Dirty Den soap role.

“Walker is archetypally British; if he wasn’t Cockney, he could be a Scouser, and today rather than whisky or knicker elastic he’d be dealing in iPods.”

At 62, Leslie likes to pick roles for maximum enjoyment.

“I want to work with nice people; I don’t want angst, I don’t want whingeing,” he says. “If we have a good time, then the audience will. We’re only in the business for them and luckily audiences seem to like me as an actor, and in the end it’s about giving something back to them.”

How true, whether Leslie is playing Jimmy Beck’s old role as Private Walker or taking the blows of a mad woman when starring in Misery on his previous appearance at the Grand Opera House in 2002.

“That was a great show but exhausting to do, lying in bed,” he says. “Trust me, lying in bed all night, every night, for 36 weeks is harder to do than you’d think.”

• Dad’s Army Marches On, Grand Opera House, York, Thursday to Saturday, 7.30pm plus Saturday matinee, 2.30pm. Tickets: £14 to £22 on 0844 847 2322.