Actor Philip Olivier came through the challenge of his life for Never Forget, he tells Emma Pinch

PHILIP OLIVIER plays a stripper in his new role. When he hasn’t actually got his top off, his clothes are tiny enough as to not make much difference.

No great stretch, you might think, for the former Hollyoaks in the City hottie, one-time Mr Gay UK host and six-pack flashing calendar hunk.

But the role of Dirty “not the sharpest tool in the box” Harry in Take That musical Never Forget has been the hardest challenge of his life.

Says Philip: “My agent contacted me and said ‘Never Forget would like to see you’. I said ‘I can’t sing. I can’t dance.’ He said yes, I’ve told them that but they still want to see you.

“We pulled up to Dance Attack studios in London and I was thinking, I hope this isn’t like Fame with 50 people doing stretches in multi-coloured leg warmers. It was just like that. I was devastated.

“I came out after the audition and told him, never do that to me again, it was the most embarrassing thing I’ve ever done.”

They took him on. But the humiliation had barely started. As every singer or dancer worth their ballet points knows, fame costs – and you pay for it in sweat.

“It was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do,” says Philip. “A week into the show I called my agent and said ‘We’ve made a mistake here – I can’t do it’. I was pulling my hair out, kicking things and wanting to go home.

“It was horrible. The dancers were all there counting one to eight – I didn’t know what they were doing. Why couldn't they count to 10? I was like ‘Why? Why are you doing that?”

He started putting the time in at night, two hours of private dance tuition from scratch. It paid off, but he’s not quite touting himself as the new John Travolta yet.

“‘The good thing about your character’, the director told me, ‘is that he is stupid. So if you mess up you do it in the character of Harry.’

Written by Bafta award winner Danny Brockelehurst (Shameless) with Guy Jones and Ed Curtis, and with choreography by Olivier award winner Karen Bruce (Footloose, Fame and Saturday Night Fever), Never Forget tells the story of five men who enter a local talent competition to form a tribute act. Each is looking for a way out and a step up. Along the way they discover fame comes at a price but friendships last forever.

Singing and dancing to an irresistible score drawn from Take That’s back catalogue, including Could It Be Magic, Relight My Fire, Pray, Back For Good and Babe, the production features a 21-strong company of dancers and singers, a local children's choir of 20 and breathtaking special effects including a 24-foot curtain of rain, computer programmed to spell out the words Never Forget.

Philip admits that before this, he’d never even seen a musical, despite owning a flat overlooking the Empire.