Climbing inside an old man’s clothes and donning make-up that will age you by practically a half century might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but for Oxhey actor Alex Lowe it's all part and parcel of becoming his 82-year-old alter ego Barry From Watford, who is set to regale audiences at Watford Palace Theatre with his pithy anecdotes next week, as part of Watford Live!

So what is it exactly that makes Alex want to dress up as a cantankerous old codger?

“Well, I don’t particularly feel attached to the old element of him,” confesses Alex. “It’s just that all my old Cockney forebears spoke like that and it’s easy for me to do. Plus I like the gentleness. It’s like revisiting an old friend who keeps repeating himself.”

Aside from being Barry, Alex finds time to write jokes for radio shows, rattle off humorous captions for greetings cards and take on board the character of John the journalist in the new eight-part series of Armando Iannucci’s political sitcom The Thick of It, which will be aired on BBC Two later in the year.

So one journalist to another, how will Alex be playing John?

“He’s a Guardian style journalist who’s unusual fair and has the rug pulled out from under him.”

This naviety is a characteristic Barry From Watford has in spades. A former pundit on LBC radio, Barry’s nostalgic ramblings look to a simpler, more community driven way of life. These reminiscences form the first half of the show Let’s Talk To Barry, which met with success at Watford Palace last year and features the voice of Catherine Tate as Barry’s long-suffering wife Margaret. Then in the second half, as if shaken from a slumber of yearning, Barry turns tack and presents his brand new show titled Let's Get On With It.

“It’s his antidote to the current recession,” Alex tells me. “He wants to give people the feelgood show of the year. Using vintage film footage, Alex has created a new string to Barry’s bow as an amateur filmmaker. Using his own hilarious film archive Barry aims to show audiences what a wonderful world lies in wait if only you can be bothered to go out and embrace it.

“The idea is that Barry went to evening classes in cinematography at West Herts College after the war and these Eastmann colour short films are the fruits of his labour over the past 30 years.”

In reality, the footage was produced by the late Harold Baim during the 1950s to 1980s in response to an Act of Parliament that established the need for a mandatory quota of British made films.

Dubbed the ‘quota quickies’, the films had to be shown by law and often took the form of 15-30 minute travelogues glorifying the English way of life with titles such as Telly Savalas Looks at Birmingham and Pete Murray Takes You To Hastings. Other notable presenters of the quickies were Terry Wogan and Nicholas Parsons.

Alex says the entire collection of films is owned by Richard Jeffs who saw the films as “part of our social history”, when Richard showed excerpts to Alex, he was inspired to give Barry a whole new lease of life.

“He showed me all this incredible footage and it’s all so sumptuous and gorgeous because Harold only shot the films when the sun was shining. There are scenes of Piccadilly Circus from 1952 and its as though the world has been ticking away for decades but Barry still sees the glory that is England.

“It’s quaint. Barry is trying to illustrate what a wonderful world it is, but his clips are all from 30 ir 40 years ago.”

Barry From Watford will be doing warm up gigs at the Hen and Chickens in Islington on Wednesday, June 10 and Thursday June before his new show, co-written with Tim Norton, debuts at Watford Palace Theatre on Friday, June 12 at 7.45pm.

Tickets: 01923 225671, www.watfordtheatre.co.uk