When the applause greeting Julian Clary's arrival on stage dies down in Plymouth he'll no doubt come out with a double entendre to suit the occasion. But the Cinderella crowd at the Theatre Royal will soon see that his affection for the live stage is quite genuine.

"I can't wait to put the slap on and be in the theatre for weeks on end," he says with a sigh after spending most of 2011 on the lonely task of writing his third novel.

"This is my fix of being on the stage. I have been in isolation and on some sort of inner journey."

It's once more into the breeches for Julian who is pitching into his umpteenth panto, including three for ITV.

This time he is in the pink gloves, frilly tricorn and bejewelled red jacket of Dandini, servant to Prince Charming.

He'll be distributing laughs alongside ventriloquist Keith Harris (as Buttons).

Julian is best known for his TV chat and game shows, from Sticky Moments onwards and his one-man theatre tours including Lord of the Mince, which provided his previous visit to the city in November 2010. He has done a fair bit of "serious" musical theatre (including the Emcee in Cabaret) hoofed to a very respectable third in Strictly Come Dancing (2004) but happily admits that panto is a favourite.

"One of the joys is that you are not in a Chekhov play. Nobody takes themselves seriously and you don't pretend the audience isn't there.

"You mess around and if someone coughs in the audience I have a line for that."

Better pack some throat lozenges, then.

The happy diversion comes after the immersion in the lonelier world of the writer in his home, a 15th-centry farmhouse in the Kent countryside, near Ashford.

He bought the place five years ago on impulse.

"I was on the phone to Paul O'Grady and I said, 'I'm a bit fed up. I might want to get out of London'.

"He said 'ah right'," adds Julian, slipping into the cackling speech of his Scouse pal. "He told me about this beautiful old house, in the village next to his, that used to belong to Noel Coward.

"It was so rundown and sad and crying out with potential. I bought it on a whim. I had never been to Kent before. That's how I do things."

Once settled in, did he pull on a velvet smoking jacket and imagine what life was like in the company of the playwright and actor?

"Well, there are ghosts in the house. There is the whiff of Noel.

"I have always loved him and I grew up in Teddington where he was born. When I was a student we did a production of Private Lives at a drama festival in 1978.

"So right through my life there has been a bit of a Noel connection and, of course, he was a raving homosexual," he adds.

The house has provided inspiration for the book, too. Briefs Encountered plays on the title of the classic film that Coward scripted and is a fictional account of the writer's life in the house with boyfriend Jack Wilson.

As for Julian's life there, "I have really got into my garden. I have dogs and ducks and chickens It is the whole rustic experience."

Really?

"Yes. People always seem surprised," he says, raising his eyebrows and wearing a slightly startled smile – showing that he is just as surprised with himself.

"I had the whole summer, just in the garden pottering about, no washing or deodorising."

He will have to leave the birds behind but dogs Valerie and Albert ("parents unknown") will spend at least some of the five-week panto run in Plymouth.

"I'm not sure how long the dogs will be with me but when they are, we will go out walking and do countryside stuff."

Then he'll be back to his Kent idyll, but not to settle down any time soon, even at 52 – he's back on tour on a man hunt next autumn with Position Vacant, Apply Within.