Sher is to appear as the craggy-faced comic in a new stage production which looks at the lives of some of the leading Carry On stars.

Sid James (below) with Bernard Bresslaw in Carry On Camping

Cleo, Camping, Emmanuelle And Dick will be performed later this summer at London's Royal National Theatre.

Sher, better known for his portrayals of Richard III and Cyrano De Bergerac for the Royal Shakespeare Company, examines James's relationship with his fellow stars.

Although the story is based on the real-life reference points, the story is fictional and his fellow characters are known as only Barbara and Kenneth.

Gina Bellman, who starred in Leon The Pig Farmer and Dennis Potter's Blackeyes, has also signed up.

Anthony Sher in The Further Adventures of Lucky Jim

Sher's last performances at the National - as the artist Stanley Spencer in the play Stanley - won him an Olivier Theatre award and a Tony nomination in New York.

He recently starred in the period drama Shakespeare In Love with Gwyneth Paltrow and Joseph Fiennes.

Last year he was seen on screen opposite Billy Connolly and Dame Judi Dench in the Oscar-nominated Mrs Brown.

This year is the 40th anniversary of the first Carry On film and members of the cast got together recently at the Pinewood film studios to celebrate the milestone.

A plaque to James was unveiled by the British Comedy Society

Blue plaques to four of the stars, including James, were unveiled at the British Comedy Society's Hall Of Fame.

James, who was renowned for his smutty laugh, died in 1976.

He combined his Carry On career with a successful spell as Tony Hancock's sidekick in Hancock's Half Hour.

Terry Johnson's script looks at the unglamorous side of laugh off camera - leaking caravans, manic depressive co-stars and James's difficult women colleagues.

A National Theatre spokesman said: "Sidney, Kenneth and Barbara are about to take on the most challenging roles of their careers - themselves."