ACTOR Lloyd McGuire was putting money into a parking meter in York the other day when someone came up to him and said accusingly: "You're Bob from Teachers."

He couldn't deny it, it's true. Four series of the C4 comedy-drama, set in a secondary school where the teachers behave more badly than the pupils, turned luckless English teacher Bob into a cult TV character.

We all loved Bob more and more as he lost his wife, his home and his job as Head of English to a younger, better-looking teacher, only to transform himself from the old, miserable, over-the-hill Bob into an youthful, laidback Bob with new hairpiece and wife.

"I do get recognised, mostly by university students who've seen it because it was quite a cult programme and a great joy to be in,"

says McGuire.

"He was such a loser, but people liked the character, and I liked the character because he kept bouncing back, and the scripts were fantastic."

He's in York making his first stage appearance for 15 years at the Theatre Royal. Not that he lacks theatrical experience, as his credits include seasons with the Royal Shakespeare Company in London, Stratford and New York, as well as seasons at Bristol Old Vic and Birmingham Rep, to name but two.

"I've been doing mostly TV and it was about time I started doing some theatre again. And this was the ideal part," he explains.

McGuire should really say parts in the plural.

In the revival of Robert Bolt's historical play, A Man For All Seasons, he plays two roles. He is both Wolsey and Cranmer in this drama set in King Henry VIII's court as he clashes with the upright Sir Thomas More (played by David Leonard, most familiar as York's long-serving pantomime baddy).

Doubling up in roles is possible because Wolsey dies in the first half of the play. "I have to try to make them different without caricaturing them," he says.

He's done his research, seeing Cardinal Wolsey as a giant in history - and not just because of his size, which entails McGuire wearing a fat suit.

"You know of him from history at school.

He was a very powerful man who, like all those powerful men in the Tudor court, knew that at any time it could all turn around. He was on his way to the Tower when he died in Leicester," he says.

"Cranmer was burnt alive. Not many of them made it through the night. The only one who did was Norfolk and only because Henry died the night before he was due to sign the execution warrant."

By coincidence, he appeared in a TV film about Sir Thomas More in which he played Thomas Cromwell. "The interesting thing about that is that there was a long scene in the Tower when Cromwell was trying to make More go along with him and we filmed that supposedly in the cell More was in at the Tower. That was a bit spooky," he recalls.

He acted with director Paul Shelley about 30 years ago ("when I was young, skinny and had hair") in Edward Albee's Zoo Story and has met him socially in the intervening years.

Teachers' Bob may have endeared himself to viewers but the exposure offered by a TV series is more difficult to assess. "It's like any actor, you do a series and get some interest, then carry on doing your work in different programmes. Basically, you're back in the pond with everyone else," he says.

McGuire hasn't done badly for someone who had no thoughts of being an actor as a teenager. He was more likely to have become a footballer or a sales executive.

He was doing a four-year apprenticeship with the Austin motor company, training to be a sales executive and playing football, too.

He was picked to play for the league, was spotted by Wolves and played a few games for the youth team. Then he played for Birmingham City, all part-time.

IWAS still doing my college course," he says. "They said that as a sales executive you'd have to make speeches and we were going to do some play readings to help with that.

"We did Chips With Everything by Arnold Wesker and I thought this is fantastic'. I really enjoyed it and thought that I'd love to have a go at acting.

"My parents were fantastic. They said it's your life, do what you want, but why don't you finish your two years training, get qualified and then do drama'. So I finished my apprenticeship on a Friday and started drama school the following Monday."

He had the chance to mix acting and soccer in a TV film, A Captain's Tale, about the Durham miners' team that played in the first ever World Cup, with Dennis Waterman and Tim Healy. "And we won," he points out.

& A Man For All Seasons, York Theatre Royal, June 7-28. Tickets 01904-623568 or online at www.yorktheatreroyal.co.uk * All four series of Teachers are available to buy on DVD.