One man’s struggle to overcome his stammer and find his own voice struck a chord with audiences when The King’s Speech film was released last year.

As the stage production on which the Oscar-winning film was based heads to Richmond this month, Christine Fleming speaks to lead actor Charles Edwards about how it feels to play a king.

The first thing Edwards is keen to pint out is while many in the audience will have seen the film the stage production promises a whole new experience.

He says: “[The fact people have seen the film] doesn’t impact as much as you might expect. Every actor has their own individual personalities and brings their own stamp to the role.

“David Seidler wrote the play before it became a film and he has been very much involved with rehearsals and is visibly very, very excited and thrilled that his original vision of the play is being brought to life.”

Exploring King George VI’s struggle overcoming his lifelong stammer, The King’s Speech recalls how the King worked to find his voice after he was thrust into the public limelight and handed the throne following his brother’s abdication.

The play pulls back the curtain on how the king, affectionately known as Bertie, sought help from unorthodox speech therapist Lionel Logue to learn to retrain his vocal cords and improve his speech in preparation of a series of nerve-racking public speeches.

Set against the backdrop of the run up to World War II the play is a factual recollection of the King’s emotive journey.

Edwards,, who has appeared in numerous film and theatre productions since graduating from the drama school in the early 90s, says: “We have quite substantial video evidence of the King speaking and it is clear what block he had – he had a hesitation and my approach to recreating it was an amalgamation of what he had and the ability not to be able to speak in public.

“It is my interpretation of what it would be like if I had a stammer.”

Edwards said playing the king, and having voice coaching lessons to understand the physical restrictions stammers impose on the body, had also given him real insight into the world of people struggling with speech impediments.

He says: “It is very interesting, you never really overcome a stammer, you learn to manage it and that is very important, “David Seidler has a stammer but he manages it and hides it and you wouldn’t know it to talk to him.

“The play is about getting their [stammerers] voices heard, finding that voice and making people aware of it is very rewarding.”

The King’s Speech, Richmond Theatre, The Green, Richmond, March 5 to March 10, call 0844 8717651 or visit atgtickets.com/Richmond.