HE was one of telly's most hated villains.

And Jack Ellis won't be far removed from his most famous role as evil Larkhall prison warder Jim Fenner in TV hit Bad Girls when he returns to the Mayflower stage as another nasty guard next week.

Keeping the cast of The Shawshank Redemption in line, he plays bully Warden Stammas in the stage adaptation of the Oscar winning classic 90 film and Stephen King novella.

"Of course he does have a touch of the Jim Fenners about him," laughs Jack, who has enjoyed a prestigious career on stage, starring in the Sam Mendes production of Richard III and Great Expectations, as well as appearances on TV in Prime Suspect and Coronation Street.

"He's certainly pretty corrupt, but he probably doesn't go quite as far as Fenner!"

The fictional character of Fenner was a thug, a cheat and a liar who bullied and even killed prisoners and colleagues and famously got his comeuppance in the finale of the hugely popular series.

"But they're also quite different. Stammas is from Ohio in the American South and he would definitely be a big follower of Trump. He believes people have to be punished, but he's also using Defresne (the convicted murderer with a talent for accountancy) for fiddles and to cook the books.

"There will be similarities when you watch the show, but whereas Fenner was an opportunist who would use anyone for his own sexual predilection, but this guy is not like that.

"He's completely different, but he's similarly corrupt! It is an acting job though, the roles are different.

Jack, the 61-year-old younger brother of original Poldark star Robin Ellis, couldn't be more different to either character.

"I played General John Allen, Obama's special advisor, at The National, and I also played an American when I appeared with Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men at The Haymarket, so I have a bit of a track record with American accents on stage. Accents have never been a big problem for me and I really like doing them.

"On TV, they often ask you to play you with a Southern or Northern accent, whatever you have. although Jim Fenner certainly wasn't a public school boy like me!"

But he can still understand the public fascination with prison.

"I think people are just fascinated by incarceration and the fact any one of us is just a whisker away from it at any time. You can be completely innocent and literally walking down the street and be caught up in something.

"It's a quite deep fear in the human psyche, being locked up, being taken away from your family and not knowing how you're going to survive. That's why it's always such a relevant subject."

Jack, who last appeared in Southampton in Great Expectations four years ago, is still being stopped in the street and asked about Bad Girls, despite the series ending over a decade ago.

And he's still being asked to appear on various reality TV shows, but he's adamant it's not for him.

"Absolutely not," he laughs. "I was asked to go on the first ever Strictly. There was interest because of Fenner and there's certain things your agent sounds you out about. But I made a very quick decision that it's not my thing. I didn't go into the profession to be a celebrity.

"It's my job to interpret and play characters and that's what I love doing. I love the experience of live theatre. It's just so thrilling."

See Jack doing the job he loves in The Shawshank Redemption at Mayflower Theatre from Monday to Saturday.

Call 023 8071 1811 or visit mayflower.org.uk for tickets.