Nigel Bennett says Captain Georg von Trapp, a lead in Neptune Theatre's The Sound of Music, is an interesting character to play.

"The play) can be approached as a piece of musical fluff if you want to, but there is a lot more to it than that. A lot of that is because of the captain, he said."

While musical theatre characters are usually far removed from the people they're based on, von Trapp is like the real man, he said.

An Austrian submarine captain in the First World War, Georg Ritter von Trapp was decorated for bravery. After the war, Austria's boundaries were redrawn and the country lost its seacoast. His wife died shortly after, leaving him to raise seven children.

'"The story is very simple. It is very sweet and naive. There is evil there, but it's a classic story of good overcoming evil," Bennett said.

Simpleand naivedon't describe many of the actor's past roles.

Born in the English midlands near Birmingham, Bennett was involved in school productions before studying theatre in university. His parents wanted him to have a real job, but they eventually stopped hounding him.

His 1977 role on Coronation Street convinced his mother he'd made it as an actor.

"She called me up, crying because I was on the big screen," says Bennett. His character was on trial for rape.

Among his other television credits are roles on Relic Hunter, Street Legal, the locally filmed sci-fi series Lexx and Forever Knight, for which he received a Gemini Award in 1995.