ACTOR Robert Duncan, who is appearing in Alan Ayckbourn's Time and Time Again next week, has a lot more time to learn his lines than when he last appeared at Malvern's Festival Theatre.

Seasoned playgoers will remember how the Drop The Dead Donkey star turned up at the last moment to save the day after Gareth Hunt, star of the pantomime Aladdin, was taken ill in December 1999.

"Poor old Gareth has a minor cardiac glitch, as Gus would say, and I was on my way down to Cornwall for Christmas, when they called me up and the next day I was on stage with a script in my hand.

"It was an actor's worst nightmare, but I had a go, and a few days later it was not so bad.

"The strange thing is that the next Christmas, Norman Bowler from Emmerdale came down with the same sort of cardiac glitch that Gareth had and I went racing off to Cardiff to stand in for him in Hook. I can't really complain because I love doing panto, seeing the kids' faces."

But now, Robert is ready for the gentler pace of Alan Ayckbourn, which he is confident will go down a treat.

"We have had packed houses here in Cambridge with it. People love their Ayckbourn because it's so gentle, the quintessential English comedy of relationships."

Robert plays Leonard, a dreamer, who's off in his own world and talks to garden gnomes.

Leonard becomes innocently involved in the chaos which results when his womanising brother-in-law Graham makes a pass at an employee's wife.

Vintage Ayckbourn, Time and Time Again is a richly humorous look at the lives and loves of the suburban middle class.

Joining Robert are John Challis and Sue Holderness, best known for playing husband-and-wife Boycie and Marlene in Only Fools and Horses, Roger May and Alexandra Lilley.

The play opens on Monday (June 10) and runs to Saturday at 8pm, with 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday matinees. Tickets are £18-£10 from 01684 892277.