UNTIL JANUARY 31, BATH: FOR 10 years Huw Higginson was a familiar face on our TV screens as PC George Garfield in the ITV drama series The Bill but in 1999 he decided to hang up his policeman's uniform to pursue other acting ventures.

The latest of these sees him touring in Mike Leigh's legendary comedy Abigail's Party, which is appearing at the Theatre Royal Bath from Monday.

Audiences will have a chance to return to the seventies with this remarkable play, the first ever revival of which opened at the Theatre Royal in 2002 before going into the West End, where it received rave reviews. Since then the comedy has had sell-out shows throughout the country and has consistently broke box office records.

Huw plays the character of Laurence who he describes as "very stressed, hen-pecked and unhappy".

This will be Huw's second time at the Theatre Royal as he performed there just after finishing drama school.

"From what I can remember it has got some of the best dressing rooms in the country, and Bath is a very nice city," he said.

Even though the play was written in the seventies it is still relevant to today's society.

"I don't think Abigail's Party has dated at all because it is all about relationships," said Huw.

"There were lots of changes going on in society at the time and the sets are very kitsch. What I like most is that every night it gets such a good response from the audience which you know is genuine.

"Our take is quite dark which I don't think came over as much in the original as I have seen it on video."

But after all the drama during his 10 years at Sun Hill, Huw must find comedy acting very different.

"In a way it is harder than drama because you have to make the characters real rather than just caricatures," he said. "I enjoy the challenge of acting on stage because you always have to get it right."

Huw starred in 600 episodes of The Bill and although he found it hard to leave he has no regrets as he has gone on to do such a variety of things since.

"It was like leaving a close family on The Bill as we all used to socialise together and I had been working with the same people for so long," he said.

"The programme has changed a lot now. The original format was much loved but was not being watched and it had to change to survive. It has now taken on more of a soap opera format which I am not a big fan of but I can see why it had to change.

"I have been so lucky since I left though as I have had great success and there has been no shortage of work."

Twenty seven years ago Mike Leigh was given a rehearsal room, five actors and six weeks to develop a new play at the Hampstead Theatre and Abigail's Party was the end result. It became a modern classic overnight.

The play was written and set during the year of the Queen's Silver Jubilee, when the suburbs were awash with new money and social aspiration, which would sweep the Conservatives into power for the next 20 years.

The play is set in a North London living room. Beverly has invited her neighbours round the hapless Ange and her husband Tony, who have just moved in over the road, and nervy divorcee Sue, whose 15-year-old punk daughter, Abigail, is throwing a party of her own. Beverly's husband, Laurence, a workaholic estate agent, has rushed out to meet a client and buy some lagers.

In Abigail's Party, writer Mike Leigh provides a ruthlessly accurate observation of the pretensions of suburbia and a world obsessed with class and taste.

Abigail's Party

Theatre Royal Bath

Monday until January 31