Don Warrington: 'King Lear looks like a really stupid thing to do'

You could drown in Don Warrington's voice. It's about as mellifluous as a songbird in love. Deep, with a discrete posh edge to it, his measured and careful tone gives everything he says weight. He sounds as though he's the wisest man in the world. But, according to Warrington, wisdom may not be his strong point: the decision to accept his latest role is, he says, "really crazy".

"It looks like a really stupid thing to do," he tells me. "When you stand back from it, you think: why?"

Why indeed. Why would you say yes to performing the bruised, unhappy vulnerable king whose daughters are making him mad and who has to rant and rave for an alarmingly long amount of stage time? Why would anyone take on the huge challenge of one of the greatest roles in Shakespeare's canon?

Anyone would hesitate. And Warrington certainly did. He always does, he says, which is surprising, when you think of the career he has had. There's been an impressive first role in Rising Damp on TV which went on to win Baftas, a part in the BBC's Death in Paradise, the classic House of Cards trilogy, C.A.T.S. Eyes on TV. He's been the face of the Kenco coffee advert and let's not forget his countless stage appearances, which include the critically acclaimed Talawa Theatre production of All My Sons in 2013.

"I kept it a secret that I wanted to act"

And yet for all his experience, Warrington is surprisingly self deprecating. He credits Sarah Frankcom, artistic director of Manchester Royal Exchange, for asking him to do King Lear. "I think that was a very brave step for her: a statement about her confidence in her judgement, and me. I was very flattered by that." Despite his successes, Warrington is endearingly (and unnecessarily) unsure of himself.

But he's in a safe pair of hands with Michael Buffong, artistic director of Talawa who directed him in All My Sons. "Working with a director is like a romance. You go on your first date and see how you do, then you get a bit closer," he says, "Every play you do with a director you develop a relationship with that person. It's about how well we dance together." Their relationship is "different, somehow" to what it was on All My Sons.

It's still early in the rehearsal process with the show itself, but Warrington has been gearing up for the role for a while now, "I've spent a long time basically trying to learn the words. I've been thinking about it for the last year."

His take on Lear is that he's acutely aware of the closeness of death. "He is a man who is aware of losing his power. He can feel death tapping on his shoulder. That's to do with age and his grasp on reality slipping," he says. "I suspect he's aware of the approach of some form of senility."

Warrington will be the first black British actor to play King Lear in a large scale production in more than 20 years. After a recent study launched by Warwick University which found BAME actors are often overlooked for lead roles in Shakespeare, I ask Warrington if he's come across challenges in the theatre world. "We are, in the end, reflective of the way we live. So if we have a problem in theatre, it means we have a problem somewhere else… We need to look at how we live and what we exclude. That's the big question here, it's about exclusion.

"We do have to look at our institutions, that's the core of it, they must not be mausoleums, they have to be to do with how we are now."

"Strictly was not something that fitted well with my personality"

Born in Trinidad, Warrington moved to Newcastle with his family at a young age. Acting was a secret passion: "I kept it a secret until I was ready to say: this is what I wanted to do." It wasn't that he was discouraged by his parents, but when he first mentioned that he might like to be an actor to a school teacher they "smiled at me and walked off." Rising Damp was his first stage and TV role (it was a play, before it was a programme). "People forget that when the show started critics in particular hated it. It became a success, but it had to fight its way through," he says. "It was a huge surprise to me."

Most of Warrington's friends were in rep while he was filming, so he was keen to get onto the boards. Fast forward to 2008 and he's on our screens in Strictly Come Dancing. "I loved learning to dance. But I didn't realise what the show was or how big it was. Was it fun? No. It's not something that fitted particularly well with my personality," he explains. "I don't think I'm very good at the razzamatazz. I was slightly embarrassed. The show calls for a lot of kahunas."

But Warrington, though he is apprehensive, will feel happier by far onstage in King Lear. Despite his initial hesitations, he enjoys being in the show once it has started. "When you're in it, it's a really different experience," he says. "You know you're awake."

King Lear runs at the Royal Exchange Manchester from 1 April to 7 May and then tours.