The 70-year-old was nominated for an Oscar for his part in The Madness Of King George and received acclaim when he played the title role on stage.

But he woke up on Friday to find the Royal Shakespeare Company production of King Lear - staged jointly with Japan's Saitama Arts Foundation - did not satisfy its reviewers.

The Daily Telegraph's Charles Spencer called it a "terrible disappointment", adding Sir Nigel seemed "curiously detatched from the proceedings, and of Lear's rage there is virtually no sign at all".

He continued: "The actor has been away from the live theatre for too long and his voice has grown flat and inexpressive. When he calls on the darkness and the devils he might just as well be ordering a nice cup of tea.

"It is sad to see this most humane and sympathetic of actors so signally failing to measure up to a great role."

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Benedict Nightingale, writing in The Times, agreed, asking whether "so essentially benign" an actor was the right choice to play Lear.

"We're left with a poignant, warm-hearted, occasionally even comical Lear, not a majestic savage burning on his invisible 'wheel of fire'," he added.

In The Independent, Paul Taylor said: "The touching aspects of the role he once again beautifully encompasses: It is the Titanic ego, caring passion and sense of Lear as a force of nature that is missing.

"How delightful it would be to see this deeply sympathetic and talented comic actor borne off into retirement on the wings of praise. That, I'm afraid, is not to be."

Taylor blamed director Yukio Ninagawa, who has produced several Shakespeare plays in Japan, but none in English.

"With every passing production [he] seems a dismayingly shallower artist than the genius we took him to be when he made his first stunning impact at the end of the 1980s."

Sir Nigel became a household name in the 1980s as the civil servant Sir Humphrey Appleby in the BBC sitcom Yes, Minister.

He won a Bafta and received a best actor nomination in the 1995 Oscars for the title role in The Madness of King George.