Mr Dev Patel grins and runs his hand through his hair. The British actor is on a rare visit to London from his new home in Los Angeles, and is keenly leaning forward on a sofa in the city’s Soho Hotel. “I’m so sorry for being late!” he says, earnestly. Mr Patel – who began his acting career aged 16 in the 2000s Channel 4 teen series Skins, although you may know best as the Oscar-nominated star of the family drama Lion, the endearing maitre d’ in the The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel series or the enigmatic lead in career-defining Slumdog Millionaire – is a little bleary-eyed from being out the night before. It’s the third time in 90 seconds he’s apologised for his tardiness (which was no more than five minutes), but he’s clearly eager to make up for it.

His latest project, The Personal History Of David Copperfield, recently won big at the British Independent Film Awards, taking home five prizes. Based on a classic story by Mr Charles Dickens, it’s a film with the framework of a traditional period drama, about a 19th-century man’s rocky ascent and descent through squalor and aristocracy. But it’s directed by Mr Armando Iannucci, the renowned British writer, filmmaker and satirist who is known for bringing out the humour in anything. Mr Patel is the film’s central force, the titular David Copperfield, who coasts through his life encountering characters aplenty, soaking in their personalities as inspiration for his writing. It’s a romp; distinctly more upbeat and cutting than your run-of-the-mill period film. A lot of that comes down to the way Mr Patel slips into it, imbuing his character with a sunshine-bright energy.

The actor and director met on a whim – Mr Patel invited Mr Iannucci to his home in LA to discuss the project. “I was told to meet Armando – not to read the script, just meet him,” Mr Patel says, recalling how bowled over he was when it finally landed in his hands: “The dialogue was razor-sharp, and the humour was brilliant.”

For him, his Copperfield was a far cry from the preconception of what a Dickens protagonist looked like. “I hadn’t really read much of Dickens before I met Armando,” he admits, muddling his words: “Only the grab and drey – that’s the tiredness!” He corrects himself. “Drab and grey stuff at school, like Oliver Twist. But Armando was insistent there was so much humour in Dickens’ work."

It also gave him the chance to return to home soil. Mr Patel hadn’t shot a film in the UK for more than five years. Does he miss it? “I do,” he says. “Before this started, I was shooting a film in India with Michael Winterbottom, with a beard, living in that jungle of markets and streets and practising the accent. Then I came right back, shaved off the beard and walked into English life. It was great.”

He stars alongside a coterie of industry legends: Ms Tilda Swinton as his eccentric great-aunt, Mr Hugh Laurie as the kite-making Mr Dick, alongside Mr Peter Capaldi, Mr Ben Whishaw and Ms Gwendoline Christie. Going onto set each day, he was “f***ing s****ing myself,” he says, before bringing his hand to his mouth. But you can aid the pressure of performing opposite such star wattage when you’ve done what Mr Patel does for as long as he has. To him, it’s just like playing; a fun moment of artifice that, if executed well, feels like real life. “It’s all play, isn’t it?” Mr Patel says. “On Marigold, you’re playing with Judi Dench – it’s like playing house! She’s what, 70? 80? And she’s still playing! That’s what acting is.”

He has a point. But that desire to keep playing, from his teen years all the way through to his next project, a medieval fantasy directed by Mr David Lowery that saw him plonked on horseback for a few months – “I got to learn how to ride a horse called Armani!” he laughs – proves that he’s never afraid to get stuck in. He’s glad to be back in the city he calls home for a bit. “In London, there’s life and there’s people,” he says. “In LA, everything feels so insular. It’s all about film.” But at heart, he insists: “I’m still that lad from Rayners Lane.”