SEEING Tommy Steele playing the miserly businessman Ebenezer Scrooge is as much a Christmas tradition as overcooked Brussels sprouts for regular Empire Theatre-goers.

“You must be getting sick of me,” he laughs.

“But I have to play Liverpool – it’s in the contract.”

The 1960s teen idol, who sculpted the Eleanor Rigby statue on Stanley Street, has been fond of the city since he arrived here at the age of 15 to join the Navy.

“It was January, 1952, and the war had only just ended so there were lots of bombing ruins everywhere and it was very austere,” he recalls.

“But the humour and the warmth of the city never left me.”

Four years later, on leave from the ship Britannic, and without enough time to return to his London home, he arranged to meet his mother in Lime Street Station.

“She had said ‘I’ll come up and bring you some underpants’ – mothers!” he says.

“But I walked right past her – she didn’t recognise me because I’d grown.

“I was 4ft 11 when I left 18 months earlier and I was 5ft 7 when I got back. She didn’t expect me to be taller than her.”

Fortunately, they did manage to find each other.

“It was a wonderful moment,” says Steele.

“We just roamed around Liverpool and had endless cups of Camp coffee – no water, just hot milk. The thought of it makes my mouth water – it always brings back memories of my childhood.”

In between performances of Scrooge, he plans to say hello to Eleanor Rigby and visit the Walker Art Gallery.

“But the show is what I’m here for,” he adds.

“I just hope everybody comes and enjoys themselves or gets scared to death. Come with someone that you trust, because you might be doing an awful lot of screaming.”

SCROOGE the Musical is at the Liverpool Empire from December 5-10.