YORK actor and museum boss Michael S Bennett returns next month for a fourth summer season of his historical solo show, An Audience With King Richard III.

Newly equipped with a "brutal but sensitive" wig, Bennett enters his fourth year of performances at the Richard III Museum, and in doing so he reaches a curious milestone: "Given that 'An Audience' was first performed in July 1997, by this year I'll have been impersonating Richard longer than he actually reigned," notes Michael.

It is a strange statistic, all the more so because the show was intended initially as a one-off. "I was really just giving myself something to do over one summer," says the erstwhile Comedy Shack promoter. "I have to say the popularity of my version of King Richard's story has been unexpected."

Yet there is no doubting the definite call for Bennett's alternative view of one of history's most notorious villains. "The show has potential bookings in Edinburgh, North Wales, Scarborough, Norwich and Middleham," he says. "Interest in Richard III is a lot greater than I initially believed."

In An Audience With King Richard III, Bennett allows the much-maligned monarch to return from the dead to tell his story. With flamboyance, energy and not a little twisted humour, the last of the Plantagenets states his case.

"Perhaps the appeal of the show is that it takes conventional history by the scruff of the neck. It didn't occur to me at the time but maybe presenting a potentially 'scholarly' subject in such a manner hasn't really been done before," says Bennett.

For those unfamiliar with the 500-year-old controversy, King Richard III (King of England, 1483-85) was demonised in Shakespeare's play as a deformed, evil serial killer guilty of committing numerous brutal murders. Chief among these is the alleged contract killing of his two nephews, the so-called Princes in the Tower. Yet since the 17th century, there has been a growing movement of revisionists who believe King Richard was simply the unfortunate victim of Tudor propaganda.

Bennett's show permits Richard III to explain himself, and at the end of each performance audience members are invited to ask Richard any troublesome questions.

An Audience With King Richard III can be seen at the Theatre Room, Richard III Museum, in Monk Bar, York, on July 28 and 29, then August 4, 5, 11, 12, 18, 19, 25 and 26 at 8pm. Doors open at 7.45pm, and admission is £4 for adults, £3 seniors and £2 children. For advance bookings, ring the museum on 01904 634191.