Robert goes from being a Family man to Greek god

Lindsay's small-screen successes are legendary, stretching back to the iconic urban revolutionary Wolfie Smith in the 1970s BBC TV comedy series Citizen Smith.

But the theatre is where his heart is.

He's currently starring in Chichester's Minerva Theatre in Martin Sherman's new play Aristo '“ the story of the last years of Aristotle Onassis and of his complex and interwoven relationships with Jackie Kennedy and Maria Callas.

"Theatre is what I do best," Lindsay says. "It's where I function best. It's just in my latter years I couldn't afford to commit to the kind of length of run that producers were wanting.

"The only living for actors is either a huge long run in something or TV or movies. I have actually done a lot of films but not many of them have seen the light of day. Films are very volatile. It's a very strange world. And it's not really my world. My world is the theatre.

"My wife is wonderful. She knows what I miss about it. It's where I have done my best work without doubt. I feel at one in the space in a theatre. I don't feel threatened. And I feel that the audience get the full benefit of it. It is not edited. It is not changed in any way. You get what you pay for, and I love the event feeling of it. It's something we have got to hold on to. We are just losing each other otherwise. We are just getting isolated.

"A lot of TV work is really just to keep me ticking over. Like anything, it becomes routine."

Rather more than that, though, is My Family, one of the country's best-loved TV series over the past nine years.

"Nine years! Who would have thought it would have lasted nine years? The press hated it because it is a domestic comedy but it is actually one of the most popular shows on TV."

And it isn't easy. It comes with its rules, which must be observed if it is to maintain its wide pre-watershed appeal.

"It's not easy for a bunch of sophisticated actors! We have got grown-up agendas. It's very hard to keep within the watershed. But we have got to keep within the confines of the show. We have got to make it tasteful. It has picked up a huge audience '“ children of all ages. The mail that you get from that show is unprecedented. I get a lot of letters from a (particular) little boy who pleads with me to be a member of the family because he thinks we have such fun."

Whether that makes it a sitcom, though, is another matter. Lindsay thinks not. "It's more a sketch show. None of the stories links. It's about what happens when parents say the things they should not say, but they are still tiny sketches.