Have you ever sat at work day dreaming of how fabulous and exciting life would be if you were a famous actor?

Well, think again, as acid-tongued actor Steven Berkoff, best known for his villainous roles such as General Orlov in the James Bond film Octopussy and Lt Col Podovsky in Rambo: First Blood Part II, says he has days where he hates his job just as much as the man on the street.

“Most of the trash that you do is because you want to work and want to earn some money. My worst? I did a film in LA, Fair Game with Cindy Crawford, and it was a nightmare.

“But Prisoner of Rio in Brazil with Ronnie Biggs was the worst experience of my life. The director kept making us do repeat after repeat. But Ronnie was charming and well motivated and had a great sense of humour.”

He adds: “Recently I did a film and there was an actress in it who I didn’t get on with. She couldn’t even bring herself to say good morning. That’s what film actresses are like because they don’t have to relate. In theatre you have to work together every night, so it’s mandatory that you integrate.

“But it’s impossible to regret because whatever dirty, loathsome experience I have, I get something out of it.”

The 76-year-old admits he sometimes “has a peep” if one of his films comes on the television and that he was “not impressed” by The Tourist with Angelina Jolie, but he did a “classic, smooth job” as Victor Maitland in Beverly Hills Cop.

Perhaps his fondess for publicly lambasting his peers is why the east Londoner, who has just returned from filming in Romania, has made the unusual decison to travel all the way up the M1 to Harpenden this month to give a rare talk about his career.

Born in Stepney in 1937, Steven dreamt of acting from a young age and went to the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art in 1958 and L'École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq in 1965.

He says of his early days in the profession: “It’s fabulous at first, all your dreams and fantasies coming true, and it’s all very, very exciting and you are doing something you believe in and for the first few years you are sustained.

“I think it didn’t occur to me it was any different for two or three years. I think I was doing a tour and we went to Rotherham and stayed in some filthy digs and the play was ghastly and I thought ‘I can’t do this any more’ and that’s when I decided to write my own plays.”

It was a wise choice as his first ever play, an adaptation of Kafka’s In The Penal Colony, opened in Drury Lane in 1969, and he went on to receive the first Total Theatre Lifetime Achievement Award in 1998.

But despite his dazzling theatre success even he struggles to get the recognition he deserves.

“I am just writing a play about dead actors such as Richard Burton in purgatory and am looking for a theatre or producer, but some don’t even want to answer.”

Harpenden Public Halls, Southdown Road, Harpenden, October 31, 8pm. Details: 01582 767525, harpendenpublichalls.co.uk