Colin Firth might not enjoy public speaking but he’d better prepare himself.

Awards season is almost upon us and, since his portrayal of the stammering George VI in The King’s Speech is expected to win him an Oscar, among other gongs, the actor can expect to be making acceptance speeches on a regular basis.

Colin plays the Queen’s father Prince Albert, or ‘Bertie’ as he was known to family, in The King’s Speech, released yesterday.

The film was partly filmed at Odsal Stadium, its main regional location, in late 2009, with Bradford people among the 600 extras in a large crowd scene. It’s a pivotal scene, involving the King making a speech. A shy man plagued by a nervous stammer, Bertie detested public speaking but took heart that, as the second son of George V, he was never expected to ascend to the throne. But when his father died and his older brother Edward abdicated, he was crowned George VI.

This films follows the true story of his friendship with unorthodox Australian speech therapist Lionel Logue, played by Geoffrey Rush, who helped him find a voice that would inspire a country facing war.

“What we didn’t want is Crocodile Dundee meets ‘snooty’,” says Colin, 50. “I think that would have been a very cheap way to go because there was a danger the joke was on that – the broad Australian and the repressed, stiff Brit – and there’s a lot more nuance than that.”

The film is essentially about two men who are, relatively speaking, obscure, even though one is a member of the Royal family. “As the second son, he’s in the shadows, not only because of a speech impediment, but because of his shyness and unwillingness to put himself forward,” says Colin.

Colin admits he didn’t know much about the Queen’s father before accepting the role. “I remember my mother talking about his reluctance to take the throne and about the stammer, but those are just vestiges of my childhood memory,” he says.

When it was discovered that Lionel Logue had a grandson living in London who had his grandfather’s papers, including a diary detailing his working relationship with the King and fragments of an autobiography, Colin and the director began researching the King’s stammer by watching archive footage and meeting contemporary speech therapists.

Watching footage of the King making public speeches, Colin witnessed a “little narrative” unfold.

“He hits a word and knows it isn’t going to come out,” he explains. “You see the dismay. You see another attempt. You see him then think ‘I can’t attack this head on,’ and when you watch that you find out about him.

“To me there’s something quite heroic there, an entire epic in those few seconds. That revealed more to me about the character than anything else.”

Colin admits to “mortifying” moments in his life when he has felt that same blind terror the King would have experienced.

“I got appalling stage fright last time I went on stage. On the opening night, I locked myself in the toilet at around 15 minutes to curtain up,” he says.

“I wasn’t planning to stay there, I just thought, ‘take a deep breath and think of your first line’, and then I couldn’t.”

Deciding he needed some air, he went through the fire door which closed behind him. Five minutes before curtain up, he couldn’t get back in and was forced to go round to the front of house “through the audience one by one, with full body contact on the way”, before being told he had to go straight on stage.

“It was like a car crash, but weirdly I remembered the lines and got to the end,” he says.

Born in Hampshire, Colin’s first acting experience was at infants school, playing Jack Frost in a pantomime. The father-of-two has starred in films such as Love Actually, Mamma Mia!, Fever Pitch and the Bridget Jones movies. He played writer Blake Morrison in When Did You Last See Your Father, partly shot in Skipton in 2007.

Last year, Colin was nominated for an Oscar for his role in Tom Ford’s directorial debut, A Single Man. He missed out to Crazy Heart’s Jeff Bridges, but must feel thankful he’s finally ridding himself of the ghost of Mr Darcy – a character that’s haunted him ever since he strode out of a lake in a dripping wet shirt in the 1995 BBC series Pride And Prejudice.

The King’s Speech reunites him with his former co-star Jennifer Ehle, who played Elizabeth Bennett.

“It was lovely to see her,” he says, revealing there were no in-jokes on set. “Jennifer and I have had a life outside of Pride And Prejudice, so I don’t think it was a critical theme of our encounter.”

He adds: “I don’t know what is going to happen this year, but the fact that people are talking (about awards) is a sign of how positively they have responded to this,” he says.

“If somebody likes the work, then thank you very much. I’ll take praise from anybody.”

The King’s Speech is now showing at cinemas across the district.