YOU may have noticed a strange man lurking around the bus stop, ogling your décolletage and clumsily aping your walk before cowering behind a post box when you finally dialled 999.

If a tad stalkerish in his approach, Tony Maudsley meant no harm. He was only studying your feminine wiles for his new role as Edna Turnblad in a new production of Hairspray.

But he admits freely his methods were slightly unorthodox.

“I’ve been following heavy-set women on the street but I’ve had to be careful that they didn’t think I was stalking them, ” confesses the 47-year-old actor best known for his long-running role as Benidorm’s flamboyant hairdresser Kenneth.

“I’ve had to be very observant, see how women walk and hold themselves. I think a lot of it comes from the clothes. And big women carry a lot of boob so it alters the way they get on a bus or go up stairs. People of size move differently, slowly, more elegantly.”

There is undeniably more to being a woman than sporting a wind-proof beehive, kitten heels or a figure-hugging number. Although the strutting in high heels part has proved by far the trickiest for the 6ft 4in actor, who weighs in a 20st. His very stature was key in earning him the role of Hagrid’s giant half-brother Grawp in Harry Potter.

“I’ve been going to the gym believe or not; I had never been in my life,” he deadpans, three weeks ahead of rehearsals. “I will need strong legs and calves to wear women’s shoes. I’m dreading it. I wore heels once in an episode of Benidorm but between takes I could take them off. For Hairspray I’m going to have to dance in them for two hours. I think they’re worried the heels are going to snap with the size of me.”

Thankfully stilettos have already been firmly ruled out in favour of sturdier weight-bearing block heels.

“They’ve thought about it carefully and taken my height and size in consideration,” he laughs.

Tony is nothing if not overzealous, a quality he can trace back to childhood. At the tender age of 11, he applied to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, only to be politely turned down and advised to try again in seven years.

As it happened, he never did, choosing instead to train at the The Royal Welsh College Of Music & Drama, at the age of 23.

This incurable tendency to jump the horse led him to spend his first proper pay cheque on a "shiny black" piano – an instrument he had coveted for years. Of course, he had no idea whatsoever how to play.

“I got the musical director on a tour of South Pacific to teach me during the day. I passed my grade three, I took it with a group of eight-year-olds."

Set in 1960s Baltimore, Hairspray follows Tracy Turnblad, a plus-size teenager with a heart of gold who dreams of dancing on national television.

She is cast on the The Corny Collins Show and uses her newfound fame to fight for racial equality, bagging local heartthrob Link Larkin along the way.

Unlike her confident daughter Tracy, Edna is deeply ashamed of her weight and appearance and has been living as a recluse, refusing to leave the family flat.

While cultivating his feminine airs remians his top priority Tony is resolved not to turn Edna into a pantomime caricature and detract from her empowering journey of self-acceptance.

“There are some many layers to Edna. She has suffered a lot and succumbed to these pressures to conform and be a certain way.

“The biggest challenge for me is to get her right and I don’t want her to be a drag queen or a pantomime dame. At the start she is a shrinking wallflower; she is a vulnerable woman and I want the audience to feel her pain, see how she grows and gains confidence when her daughter tentatively takes her out of the apartment.”

Tony was particularly drawn to the show's underlying themes of racial tolerance in light of recent protests in Baltimore sparked by African-American Freddie Gray's death in police custody.

“The issues in the show are still current today and everyone can learn something about tolerance from watching Hairspray,” he insists.

The eighth series of Benidorm is not due to air for many weeks but Tony is already keeping his fingers crossed for a ninth and ready to return to set when the tour ends next March.

“I’ll be with Benidorm for as along as they want me," he booms. "Kenneth is a gift of a part. And he has a few similarities with Edna. He is very loyal although he is more outspoken and he has that confidence that is never really challenged. I would not give him up easily.”

Hairspray will run at the New Theatre Oxford from September 21 to 28.

Tickets are available on 0844 871 3020 or at www.atgtickets.com/oxford.