Meldrew as Malvolio? Richard Wilson’s casting as the censorious steward in the dark-hued comedy Twelfth Night has grabbed headlines (as was presumably intended), though selecting a sitcom star for the role is not unprecedented.

I vividly recall a production of the play at the Watermill Theatre in Newbury 27 years ago in which Frank Thornton slipped most comfortably into the cross-gartered yellow stockings. This was principally because his screen persona of Captain Peacock in Are You Being Served was obviously modelled on Shakespeare’s original, being at once preeningly vain (thus his name), bossy, spoilsport and as condescendingly superior to those he deemed below him as he was obsequiously crawling to those clearly above.

Meldrew, by contrast, is comparable to Malvolio only in curmudgeonliness. One might suggest well-advanced years as a further link, though there appears to be no textual justification for what has become conventional casting of an oldish actor in the role. Here, in truth, Wilson seems too close to placing a second foot in the grave to make possible the conceit that the servant could have aroused the passions of his mistress Olivia (Alexandra Gilbreath).

Still, his is a competent, well-judged performance. He is a tad short on volume early in proceedings but he seizes his moment in the two great comic scenes in which, first, he swallows the contents of the forged letter from Maria (Pamela Nomvete) purporting to reveal Olivia’s passion for him and, second, proceeds to obey her ‘instructions’ by appearing in those famous stockings, wreathed in smiles. Application of the smile is a felicitous touch, being so unfamiliar to his demeanour that it needs to be wrenched into place manually.

Observing their handiwork, the co-conspirators, headed by Sir Toby Belch (Richard McCabe), delight in their ruse, as does the audience, though as ever one comes to feel that the joke goes too far, becomes too nasty, with Malvolio’s incarceration. As if in acknowledgement of this, director Gregory Doran has turned into a near diabolical figure his shameless tormenter there, the musical fool Feste (Miltos Yerolemou), in his guise as Sir Topas.

Fortunately, this gloomier side to the play never dominates in a production that wafts us to an Illyria characterised by warm Levantine fabrics (designer Robert Jones) and music (Paul Englishby). The central love story is splendidly presented, with the cross-dressing Viola (Nancy Carroll) sparring superbly as ‘Cesario’ with Olivia before succumbing to the dubious charms of the batty Count Orsino (the excellent Jo Stone-Fewings returning to a role he memorably played at Stratford in 2001). Credibility (of a sort) is aided by her looking, for once, quite like her long-lost brother Sebastian (Sam Alexander). But this production’s chief joy is James Fleet’s hilarious portrait of Sir Andrew Aguecheek, which manages to show us the “very parfait knight” who might just be hiding behind the gormless exterior.

Courtyard Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, until November 21. Tel: 0844 8001110) (www.rsc.org.uk). Later in London.