When Bob Hoskins talks, you can guarantee that he’s got something to say – and say it he does in his usual non-nonsense way.

Those cockney tones are instantly recognizable from countless BT adverts and hit films such as The Long Good Friday, Mermaids, Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Hook.

Bob obviously feels like a bit of a bunny – and he’s definitely in the mood for plain speaking. He’s just been to a screening of his latest movie Nixon, in which he plays the legendary FBI boss J Edgar Hoover, and his performance has already won him rave reviews in the US – and, this month, Nixon is over here.

Oliver Stone (Natural Born Killers and JFK) directs the gripping epic, which stars Bob’s old pal sir Anthony Hopkins in the title role. The film tells the story of poor Californian boy Richard Nixon’s rise to become the 37th president of the United States – and his subsequent fall from grace in the Watergate scandal.

'Nixon was wonderful to work on,' says Bob. ‘It’s an amazing film with some incredible performances, not least Tony’s. He’s brilliant – I’ve known him for years and it’s always great to work with old mates.

‘It brought together Oliver – a tense genius, an extraordinary, explosive character – and Tony, also a genius but a dreamy Welshman who’s in the clouds most of the time. Yet together they were pure harmony. People on set were asking, “What’s wrong with Oliver? He’s like a Buddhist monk?” Everyone was calm and it was great. The two of them got on from the moment they first met.’

Bob feels that the Nixon story is a tragedy – the tale of a man who so desperately wanted power that he was corrupted by it and by the people around him. But it’s when he considers what kind of film would be made about the political figures in Britain’s modern history that Bob really lets rip. ‘A film about Maggie Thatcher would be a comedy – a joke,’ he says.

‘Thatcher is the Wicked Witch of the West. She’s done more damage to Britain than Adolf Hitler; she dismantled the country and asset-stripped the place. A story about her might be interesting, but I ain’t doing it.’

The mention of Mrs. Thatcher has reminded Bob of one of her allies, Ronald Reagan – someone else he’s not too keen on. 'Thatcher was brighter than Reagan but, let’s face it, there aren’t too many people thicker than him in politics. Reagan was like our Royal Family, you know? They’re all brain dead – dinosaurs. We’re about to go into the 21st century and they’re not even in the 20th!’

He makes one exception, though. Bob’s a strong supporter of Princess Diana. ‘There’s all this fuss about her, yet she’s the best thing that’s happened to the Royals in years. None of this has got anything to do with affairs; the Royal Family have been having affairs since they started – that’s what they do.

‘Princess Diana should become an ambassador for Britain. She wants to do the job and knows how to use the media – look what she's done for children, AIDS and the homeless. She's raised millions of pounds - she's brilliant.

'The rest of the Royals will probably try to get rid of her because they can't take her. And if they do, I think the Royal Family is finished.'

Whether you agree with Bob or not, you certainly can't ignore his no-nonsense approach to things, including himself. By his own admission, he's the most unlikely star - at least physically - although he has enough talent to match the biggest and best of them.

But Bob is delightfully direct and is likely to do himself down when you ask why he's one of the most successful British actors in Hollywood. 'I put it all down to plastic surgery,' he says, with a mischievous smile. 'I haven't had it! In Hollywood, physical beauty is everything and everybody looks like Action Man or a Barbie doll.

'If a director wants a bit of reality, then a little fella with a bald head, broken nose, crooked teeth and a fat gut is a bit of a godsend.

'Image? I don't know what image is. In America, they're obsessed with image and desperate to protect it, but I wouldn't know where to get an image from!'

But on screen, Bob is very good at creating images - in The Long Good Friday, in which he played a London gangster, he looked as if he'd cheerfully pull your ears off before saying hello. Put a foot wrong and you could end up hanging upside down in an East End walk-in freezer.

Then there's his softer side, the one Bob can use to charm the pants off anyone, the one which surfaces in films such as Mermaids (with Cher) and Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

So just how did the boy from Bury St Edmunds become a star? Bob's family moved from Suffolk to north London when he was two. After leaving school at 15, Bob drifted through a variety of jobs - from plumbing to accountancy - before he stumbled into acting by accident. It was chance that took him into the Unity Theatre in London in 1968, when he went along to give support to a friend who was auditioning for a part.

But as Bob stood at the bar nursing a pint, the director spotted him and assumed he was also there to audition. 'He asked me to read, then offered me a leading part. I couldn't believe it - I thought I had as much chance of becoming an actor as a brain surgeon.'

It was the 1977 BBC production of Dennis Potter's Pennies from Heaven, in which he played scheming music plugger Arthur Parker, that really set Bob on the road to stardom. Then, two years later, Hollywood sat up and took notice when he played a London mobster in The Long Good Friday.

He's never looked back, showing a range of skills few can equal, in films as diverse as The Cotton Club, with Richard Gere; Heart Condition, with Denzel Washington; and Who Framed Roger Rabbit, in which he appeared alongside a bunch of cartoon characters.

Last year, he directed and starred in Rainbow, a family adventure movie which will be released in the UK in the summer, as well as making heavyweight productions such as Nixon and the yet-to-be-released Secret Agent, with Robin Williams.

'I've no particular ambition to be a director as such,' says Bob. 'If I feel I've got something to offer, and it interests me, then, yes. Otherwise, acting is for me - acting is the best job in the world, it really is.

'You have no responsibility. All you have to do is learn your lines and that's it. Look at the way you're treated when you turn up for work - they give you breakfast and a cup of tea and ask, "Are you all right?" They tart up your face, you say somebody else's words, then pick up your cheque and go home. And you get days off! I tell you, it really is the way to live...'

Bob Hoskins dearly loves his work, but these days he likes it to be on his terms. His family - wife Linda and children Rosa, 14, and 12-year-old Jack - come first. He was married before, to Jane Livesey, and Bob partly blames the pressure of work for the break-up of that relationship.

'I was never there. Work was taking me all over the place and my home life suffered. I messed it up and I never want that to happen again,' he says simply.

He has two grown-up children, Alex and Sarah, from that first marriage. He says he has made up for lost time as much as he can and now has a good, strong relationship with both of them.

These days, despite his workload, Bob tries to fit in other projects around Linda, Jack and Rosa. In 1994, he went off to the Far-East to make a documentary on tigers for ITV, and he has been doing the British Telecom adverts for two years - 'because they're good fun and the money's nice, as well', he confesses.

'I don't like being away from my family for long periods of time - I get lonely and I miss them terribly. It's not always possible but, whenever it is, I take them all with me. I don't want to come home one day and find that my kids think I'm their uncle! I want them to know who Dad is - that's important. They're lovely kids.

'You'd have to ask them if I'm a good dad. I like to spend time with them, I know that. When I'm not working, I get up, give them breakfast and take them to school. Then I'll go home and potter about. Sometimes, I'll have lunch with friends. I have a darkroom at home and I love photography. I come up with all these arty ideas but I usually end up taking pictures of the kids.

'In the evenings, either I'll cook or Linda will, and then it's time for the children to go to bed, so I take them up and read them a story. After that, I'm usually knackered. I watch the news, read a paper and that's it. With two young kids, there isn't a lot of time for anything else.'

Bob's passion for a great role shows no signs of dimming - and his part as J Edgar Hoover in Nixon gives him just that. The film portrays Hoover as corrupt, paranoid, ruthless and hints that the FBI boss was a cross-dresser with dark, repressed sexual secrets.

'When I first talked about the role to Oliver, I said, "Perhaps I should do it in a little pink ballet dress." When I turned up on set, he had all these dresses ready, but I lost my nerve.'

He adds: 'Seriously, Hoover was a difficult character to find. I must have read about 20 books and seen every inch of film that was taken of him. But what's extraordinary is that, every time he appeared in front of a camera, he reinvented himself.

'Hoover was ruthless. Murder seemed to be an everyday occurrence with him. He'd think nothing of having someone wiped out. in reality, he loathed himself, so the more dirt he could get on anyone else and the worse he could make them look, the better he felt. He was obsessed with getting dirt on people. It wasn't just political; it was like a drug to him.'

And Bob, in his usual plain-speaking way, can't see why the Americans made such a fuss about the Watergate scandal (in which Nixon was accused of ordering a break-in at the opposition Democrat headquarters).

'I think most Europeans would ask, 'What's the fuss about?" Nixon stopped the Vietnam war; he went to China and Russia to start talks; and some might say he was one of the best presidents America ever had...’

That’s putting it on the line for you. But as Bob Hoskins is fond of saying, ‘It’s good to talk!’