TREVOR Allan Davies is the man who will be scaring your socks off in the Haymarket's spooky Christmas treat this year - and writing the music to boot!

In The Canterville Ghost, he plays, well, the Canterville Ghost - and is absolutely rubbing his hands together with glee at the prospect.

"The only thing I'm worried about is being 52 and having to fly through trap doors, slide down banisters and dive off things," he laughs.

"But I'm relatively fit, so here's hoping. I think it's going to be quite tiring!

"I've just seen the model for the stage so far, and it's fascinating, with lots of clever bits and things that change. It's got some wonderful stages - very complex. There's definitely an element of The Phantom of the Opera in it."

The writer, Shaun Prendergast, has adapted an original story by Oscar Wilde to make it extra-Christmassy. Can Trevor explain what it's all about?

"There's an American family with four children in the original story, but we have lost the older son in ours. For some reason, they have no place to live and they get word of the Canterville family's place, which has been haunted since 1575, and move in.

"Basically, the ghost is there and these brash Americans give him a fairly hard time. But the real story is that he and the young girl of the family form a relationship so she can help redeem him. It's a very poignant story.

"There's a lot of humour in it too, as well as romance. It's very funny, with some of the best gags I've heard in a while. Even some of the scary scenes have hilarious moments in them.

"Our production is set in the 1920s, so we could include livelier music and there are some quite jazzy tunes.

It's a period that I know really well and those are the tunes I listened to as a child."

Not only was Trevor excited about getting back to acting after having been out of the UK for a while, but, as he explains to me, the situation with the Haymarket seemed rather fated in the stars.

"I moved here from Canada in the mid-'70s and worked for 20-odd years as a musician/actor. I wrote music for BBC radio drama and was in quite a lot of shows. Then I moved back to Canada.

"I'd just come back here and put my telephone number on a website again saying that I was available, and half-an-hour later the phone rang, and it was Shaun Prendergast who had adapted this story.

"He said, 'Trevor, are you in the country again and, if so, would you fancy doing a job?' So he explained it, and said at the end, 'Oh, it's being directed by a guy called John Adams'.

"I worked with John on a series in 1979. I was with Shaun when he earned his Equity card in 1980, and they didn't know each other! So they're doing this show together and they both thought of using me and they didn't know the other knew me!"

So is it nice to be back with his old friends?

"I'm really enjoying it. They're doing it with seven musicians/actors and they're very good. I've written a very complicated choral arrangement and I brought it in and they learned it in 10 minutes! They're the best all-round company that I've ever worked with.

"All seven people will be either singing or acting all the way through the show, which is a daunting prospect in three weeks.

"Mind you, Maria, one of the cast, was describing a similar production in which they had three days to do something similar.

"I'd forgotten how much I love it - 1991 was the last show I wrote and produced, but coming back into this situation, where people are throwing ideas around - 'Oh we could do this or that' - is absolutely thrilling."

And is he impressed with the Haymarket's selection of John for its new artistic director?

"I think that Basingstoke should be very pleased with itself for getting John. He nursed playwrights who are now very well-known. He's a very fine man and he loves theatre.

"We've had such a good time on this and it's reminded me of just how talented he is!"

The Canterville Ghost will run at the Haymarket Theatre from December 8 until January 8. Tickets, priced from £10, are available from the box office on 0870 770 1088.