"There has always been a touch of the end of the pier about Ian," booms Simon Callow

Lunchtime at the rehearsal rooms in the Jerwood Space on Bankside, and the actors are taking a break. Everyone seems to be in pantomime. Patsy Kensit (Genie of the Lamp), Richard Wilson (Baron Hardup) and Christopher Biggins (Widow Twankey) are all having lunch as I meet with Simon Callow, who is playing the dastardly Abanazar in Aladdin. Callow explains the key to the villainous role. "It's 'weighty'. It's a technical term, meaning a role with weight. Well, as an actor, I always knew I had weight. Meaning power. Authority. An authoritative actor must be weighty, just as a romantic lead must be lyrical. I have never played a romantic lead." He toys with his hummus. "Well, once. When I played Orlando at the National in 1979. I thought I had arrived, but regrettably the critics were all very depressed by my physical appearance. Even though I was quite slim, then."

It feels as though Callow, 56, has "arrived" more than once on the cultural scene: in the title role on stage in Amadeus; as the skinny-dipping Rev Beebe in A Room With a View; as Gareth, whose funeral it is in Four Weddings; and, more recently, as Charles Dickens. Callow always seems on the brink of a career-defining part. He agrees that his acting profile is, like himself, somewhat eccentric, and seems rather sad about it. "My career has been peculiar. I have never done any Chekhov, or any Ibsen. I have only done four plays by Shakespeare and one play by Ben Jonson. Yes, I have made some strange choices. But they are to do with what I have been offered. What I would have expected of my career is that by now I would have been working in an ensemble. But that hasn't happened."

He cheers up, however, when considering the part he is about to play. "I describe my costume as Asiatic Intergalactic." Sounds like something out of X-Men, I say. "Ha ha ha! Exactly," he booms. No wonder he's pleased with the analogy. Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen, both great British stage actors, have made their fortunes thanks, in part, to pantomimic roles in Hollywood's X-Men franchise. "Ian is an absolute trailblazer," says Callow enthusiastically. "And he loves being one. However, he wasn't the first actor to come out as gay. In fact, I was. In my 1984 book, Being an Actor. But Ian took it on as a cause, and a celebration."

Perhaps it was McKellen's triumphant performance last year as Widow

Twankey at the Old Vic that encouraged Callow towards the custard-pie end of the business. "Well, there has always been a touch of the end of the pier about Ian. He's been in Coronation Street. Well I am longing to be in EastEnders. Longing to be. We all love popular theatre." He's started out quite well, I suggest. He's had a cameo in Doctor Who. "Oh, I loved being in Doctor Who," says Callow. "Actually I wanted to be Doctor Who. About ten years ago, I was voted a potential Doctor Who by Daily Mail readers."

The realisation that McKellen, Callow et al have come to is one the Morecambe and Wise Christmas specials hit upon years ago. "Serious" actors can put themselves up for soaps, pantos and Doctor Who, they can clown about in ludicrous Hollywood movies, and their stock won't be troubled one iota. In fact, it will be increased. The only weighty thing about it will be their newly loaded bank balance.

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