YOU can’t move for Hitchcocks this winter. First came Toby Jones’s television portrayal of the film auteur in The Girl on BBC2 over the Christmas holidays, and from tomorrow Anthony Hopkins takes his turn in prosthetics in the film Hitchcock.

In between, a stage version has taken to the boards at Hull Truck Theatre, where Alexander Delamere is playing Hitch in Natalie Abrahami’s tenth anniversary revival of Terry Johnson’s West End hit Hitchcock Blonde.

“I wasn’t available for the film,” jokes Alexander, or Alex as he is less formally known. “I had absolutely no idea the film was being made. It’s amazing how many things were going on in the zeitgeist: the TV drama, the Tony Hopkins film, a documentary too – but I was in the original production of Terry’s play at the Royal Court Theatre ten years ago.”

On that occasion, in a play with three time settings – 1919, 1959 and modern day – he played the 1919 version of the young Hitchcock. “This time I’m on stage as Hitch in 1959 with the younger version of myself as Hitchcock on screen,” says Alex.

“It’s a little bit surreal – seeing this young, well, younger Hitchcock, where I had more hair than I have now, though actually I had a wig to make me look younger.”

Describing the younger Hitchcock’s character, Alex says: “Before the 1950s, he could almost have passed as one of Al Capone’s sidekicks as he was not exactly kind on set – and it wasn’t just blondes he didn’t get on with.

“He was virtually a barrow boy, brought up in Leytonstone, in east London, and though his accent ended up having aspirational posh sounds he still had London vowels creeping in.”

Hitchcock Blonde is a story of sex, fascination and obsession or, rather, it is three overlapping stories of sex, fascination and obsession.

In the modern-day story, film and media lecturer Alex has invited star pupil and latest crush Nicola to his Greek villa to join him in looking through the frames of a lost Hitchcock film from 1919 but is there enough to reveal a forgotten masterpiece?

Cut to 1959, Hitch is interviewing a Blonde, who may or may not become his next leading lady, with Psycho looming on the horizon. Fade to 1919; zoom in on the cutting-room floor for setting number three, shown on screen.

“Essentially, the play is a way of looking at Hitchcock’s endless fascination with blondes. In his film career, there were 52 films and I think 47 had blondes, none of them natural,” says Alex.

How did Alex go about creating his characterisation of Hitch?

“It’s not an impersonation, so instead I’m trying to find the truth in it. I studied his physicality to find his gravitas and weight, with a rather funny way of walking and that archetypal way of holding himself – the famous Hitchcock silhouette.

“The designer [Oliver Townsend] and I worked hard to find a way of allowing me to inhabit that archetype, and the result is a very psycho-physical representation that can work both ways. You can have the ideas from the inside that affect the way you are, or you can create the physical reality that then presents itself mentally.

“Then, of course, there’s the voice: the syntax and the pattern of speaking, in a play where you have to balance the dramatic drive and keeping the audience interested while fulfilling their expectations of Hitchcock.”

Alex also has to play to the spirit of Terry Johnson’s version of Hitch in the play. “There are lot of darkly comic moments to it, and it’s very ironic piece too, and how much of it may be autobiographical I wouldn’t like to suggest,” he says.

“Last time, at the Royal Court, Terry directed it himself, and this time, for this regional premiere, he was involved in the casting and I was in the fortunate position of having worked for him ten years ago, so I had that advantage.”

Analysing the Hitchcock presented in Hitchcock Blonde, Alex says: “He’s trying to find this elusive ‘blonde’ person to be in his films, and out of all the ones he worked with, he had the closest affinity with Grace Kelly, who, of course, upped and married a prince.

“Hitchcock spent the rest of his life trying to find the essence of this woman he worked with in 1919, hence his obsession with blondes – and this fantasy world was so much brighter than the real world.”

Who is the “Blonde” in Hitchcock Blonde, as played by Rosalie Craig?

“She represents, if you like, his history of blondes, though she has a very strong story in her own right,” says Alex. “The hypothesis is that she was hired as a body double for Janet Leigh in Psycho’s shower scene.”

• Hitchcock Blonde runs at Hull Truck Theatre until February 16, 7.45pm and 2pm matinee on the last day. Warning: contains nudity and adult themes. Box office: 01482 323638 or hulltruck.co.uk