A lmost a year after the film reigned supreme at the Oscars, The King's Speech has finally made its world premiere on the stage.

The original play which inspired the multi award-winning film starring Geoffrey Rush, Colin Firth and Helena Bonham Carter, is set to visit Bath as one of only six theatres in the UK as part of a short national tour.

David Seidler's story about how King George VI conquered his stammer with the help of speech therapist Lionel Logue began four decades ago.

Seidler, a stutterer himself, began researching his storyline for The King's Speech throughout the 1970s and Eighties, but abandoned it after the Queen Mother asked him not to pursue the project during her lifetime.

After the Queen Mother died in 2002, Seidler returned to writing the play. It was in 2005, at a script reading in London, that film director Tom Hooper's mother spotted its movie potential and told him she'd found his next film.

Four Oscars and seven BAFTAs later, and the King's Speech now fulfils its destiny by taking its rightful place on the stage, featuring an impressive cast including acclaimed actor Jonathan Hyde as Logue.

"It's a lovely play – what I'd call a kind play – and one I simply couldn't refuse," says the star.

When King Edward VIII abdicates for the love of Wallis Simpson, his terrified brother Bertie is thrust into the spotlight and crowned King George VI of England. In a time of national crisis, a debilitating speech impediment leaves Bertie incapable of addressing a country on the brink of war.

In a room at 146 Harley Street his wife Elizabeth, the future Queen Mother, has arranged for him to meet the maverick Australian speech therapist Lionel Logue.

Breaking all royal protocol, the King and his oddball therapist embark on an unconventional journey to correct the King's stammer and help him deliver the radio-address that will inspire the nation.

"The key is the relationship between these two men," an amiable Jonathan tells me. "It was a fascinating relationship. This was almost the largest class divide you could find – someone from one of the dominions and a future monarch.

"The fact that they both stand their ground is very interesting and people find that fascinating.

"We are so used to people walking out of the room backwards and bowing and scraping to royalty, but Logue refused to do that. He and Bertie had to be equals for the thing to work.

"So in addition to helping the King in terms of his affliction, they also became terribly good friends. I think that friendship is one of the big attractions of the piece."

Jonathan Hyde has been impressing devotees of stage and screen for over 40 years, finding his broadest audience as the cowardly J Bruce Ismay, managing director of the White Star Line of steamships, in James Cameron's worldwide hit Titanic.

Other Hollywood credits include Macaulay Culkin's generous-hearted valet in Richie Rich; Warren Westridge, the ever-sarcastic narrator in Anaconda; the disgraced Egyptologist in The Mummy; and the ruthless hunter in Jumanji, opposite Robin Williams.

When not propping up American blockbusters, Hyde is lending his inimitably resonant voice to the English stage, performing extensively with the Royal Shakespeare Company, most recently in Ian McKellen's King Lear and in The Seagull, both of which toured internationally.

Though the star boasts a distinctive Olivier-esque English speaking voice, like Logue he was in fact born and raised in Australia.

"The irony is that I did my first professional job in 1969, but this is the first Australian that I have ever played on stage. It's been a long time coming.

"Logue was living in Australia in the middle of nowhere – in Adelade, Perth – before moving to England. That has a lot of resonance for me because that's where my father was born in 1905. My grandfather was the Deputy Premier of Queensland, but my grandmother, and many older members of the family, always talked about going 'home', which meant coming back to England. Just as Logue did."

But it's not just the character of Logue that Jonathan can sympathise with – his own educational background means he can understand Bertie's disposition.

"The relationship and friendship with Logue would have been difficult for Bertie to accept at first. Bertie had a very different upbringing to Logue. I spent nine years in boarding school because my mother died when I was young, and I remember the standards and practice of the moneyed classes getting rid of their children at the earliest opportunity.

"They would shake hands with their sons when they went to school, when they went to university and perhaps once more before they went off to fight another war or found anther empire. It was pretty far removed emotionally. So these people found it tough to open up.

"Having said that, I think George V was very fond of Bertie – I don't think it was one of those incidents of brutal father and damaged child."

It's clear that Jonathan has a lot of respect for the character he is portraying.

"I find him a wonderful character. He was a passionate man who was passionately committed to his work.

"He had an interesting life. He studied elocution, then he became a gold-miner, then he served in the First World War and then he got hooked on the idea of helping these returning soldiers who were shell- shocked and ruined.

"The fact that he charged a lot of money to those who had it and treated those who didn't for free says a lot about the kind of man he was."

Although Jonathan lives in Bath, this will be the first time he's trodden the boards at his local theatre.

"Strange, isn't it?" he muses. "So although born in Australia, it's my first time playing an Australian on stage, and although I live in Bath, it's my first time on stage at the Theatre Royal Bath.

"I've actually lived here for six years, but when I look at my diary, I have been away more than I've been here.

"Throughout 2007 I was travelling the world in Ian McKellen's Lear. In 2009, I was doing a long run of Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens and in 2010 I was doing the same thing in San Francisco and Los Angeles.

"But when I am about, I do love living here and the Theatre Royal is a sweetheart of a theatre."

So when walking the streets of Bath – or Los Angeles – which of his screen incarnations is he most recognised for?

"Often it's simply the last thing one did, so at the moment it tends to be Spooks. I also get recognised for Titanic a bit, although less so now.

"Jumanji seems to hold a special place for a lot of people – it's amazing how many people remember that film.

"A lot of the kids who watched it are all grown up now – I scared the hell out of them when they were kids, but they could give me a punch in the eye now!"