Crucible star Richard Armitage said theatre was his “first love” as he returned to the stage after a 13-year gap.

The actor said it was his fame from playing parts in Spooks and The Hobbit on TV and film that had given him the chance to appear as John Proctor in the Arthur Miller play.

At a Savoy party after his opening night at the Old Vic, he said: “All I ever expected from a career was to pursue a life in theatre. Then you get swept into a torrential river of television and film roles which I’ve adored playing.

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“And without them, I doubt whether I would have been cast in this. They needed an anchor. It was happenstance. I started in theatre and it’s such a great thing to come back to it and realise it’s my first love.”

Armitage, whose last theatre appearance was in a 2001 Royal Shakespeare Company production of The Duchess of Malfi, said he had been “hunting” for a stage role for years. The Hobbit, in which he plays Thorin, was “epic” and “a different feast” with the CGI.

But John Proctor was a role he had “coveted” since studying at Lamda, and working with director Yaël Farber at the Old Vic was “exciting”.

“Every night I get that rush of nervous excitement. I can’t wait to speak that incredible text,” he said.

Armitage, 42, who lives in New York, visited the Massachusetts site of the 17th-century witch trials that inspired Miller. He said the themes of fear and suspicion still resonate now.