"When I started in this game there was the Radio Times, the TV Times, papers like the Liverpool ECHO and the dirty stuff on the top shelf.

Now you can't get near the porn because there's three or four shelves full of magazines like I'm A Celebrity, Mow My Lawn!"

Viewers with good memories might recall he played Yizzel in Bread, a character which brought him to the city many times in the 80s: "I used to do two or three episodes in every series and there were about seven series, so I know Liverpool very well," he says.

"I stayed there quite a lot, resident down at the Moat House, and I was at the Playhouse many years ago so I'm sure I'll have the odd stay-over when we bring the show to the Empire."

And who knows? Now he's got a taste for a rousing chorus, maybe Charlie will be back with another musical again soon.

He laughs. "I'm sure there are parts I could play, but probably not many because I really can't dance. If I was offered a million quid to do Celebrity Come

Dancing I wouldn't, but I'd never pass the audition anyway.

"I haven't got two left feet, I've got about eight. It's just as well Buffalo Bill wasn't renowned for his soft shoe shuffle!"

* Annie Get Your Gun, co-starring Steven Houghton and Patricia Thornhill, is at the Empire from November 7 to November 12.