Some actors say they can't get in touch with the character they're playing until they put on the shoes. Former Coronation Street actor Iain Rogerson has a different take. "For me, it's when I get the trousers, because then you know what you're going to do with your hands," he says.

After two years as Rovers' cleaner Harry Flagg, he's back on stage at York Theatre Royal - a commutable distance from his home in Pocklington - playing Dr Chasuable in Oscar Wilde's The Importance Of Being Earnest.

He hadn't seen the trousers when we met during the first week of rehearsals but knew he'd be wearing a white panama hat. Rogerson's not a religious man so that side of things doesn't come into it and he's not an actor who insists on creating a back story for their character. If the author didn't write it, he's not interested.

"If Oscar Wilde hasn't bothered to write how many years he was at divinity school that doesn't matter," he says. "You can't act a back story. Other actors want one and that's fine, whatever floats your boat. But sometimes there's more bollocks talked about acting than there is about football or wine."

He's had a 15-year association with Hull Truck Theatre Company and John Godber's modern plays, so there's an element of shock to encounter Wilde's more formal language in Earnest. He read the play at drama school but has never seen it performed, although has watched the recent Judi Dench film version on DVD.

"It's so different from Godber's work at Hull Truck which is so colloquial. With Wilde, you think it's a different language," says Rogerson.

"TV scripts are written so conversationally. We had a voice coach in yesterday and it was like being back at drama school. But that's why I'm here. It's part of your job as an actor."

He knows Theatre Royal artistic director Damian Cruden from Hull Truck and, once he left the Street, contacted him to see if there was any theatre work going. Cruden suggested him to David Leonard, the theatre's regular pantomime villain making his directorial debut on Earnest.

Another big difference for Rogerson is the size of the role. Chasuable doesn't appear until the second act, then disappears until the final act. In Godber's plays, he's used to being on stage most of the time.

The production reunites him with Christine Cox, with whom he's appeared several times. She played his wife in Hull Truck's Lucky Sods and his mother-in-law in Alan Bennett's Getting On at the Theare Royal.

He's also fascinated to be acting alongside people starting out in the business. For one cast member, this is her first professional job after drama school.

Rogerson's own desire to be an actor was fostered by a very good drama department and brilliant drama teacher at school. He spent two years as a lighting technician at a civic centre in Aylesbury before applying for drama school. After graduating, he worked as an acting ASM (assistant stage manager) to gain his Equity card.

He thinks of himself as a jobbing actor - someone who makes a living being an actor, who's not famous, just making a living going from one job to another. Coronation Street changed all that to a degree, although he hasn't let it go to his head. As he points out, it took 15 years to get a job on Coronation Street. He's realistic about what such a high profile role has done for his career.

It certainly gives him a degree of recognition. "Generally, they just want an autograph," he says. "What's nice as an actor is you're going off to do theatre again because it's recognition that you're a proper actor. As soon as I came out of Coronation Street, I rang Godber and said, 'what are you doing?' because I wanted that live audience.

"I've done two plays and panto since coming out of Coronation Street a year or so ago. Your saleability changes so quickly. It only lasts so long. I just want to be able to walk through B&Q on a Saturday without people staring at me."

He first met Godber through a mutual friend and landed a role in the rewritten version of Bouncers. They've worked together on and off ever since. "We have a similar sense of humour so John is a mate. I can always go back to him and say, 'can I come out to play?'."

Rogerson moved from Buckinghamshire to Yorkshire after finding that most of his work was in the North. He knew Pocklington because, while appearing with Hull Truck, he'd visited the gliding club there to pursue his hobby of flying light aircraft.

Perhaps one day Harry Flagg will once again walk along the hallowed cobblestones of Weatherfield. The character was sent off on a world trip in a camper-van, so he could return.

"I've had my pocket money and spent it. It helps your career but doesn't make you a better actor. It's such a powerful piece of TV in the sense of the number of people who watch it," he says.

* The Importance Of Being Earnest is at York Theatre Royal from August 26 to September 17.