THERE is an instant feel-good factor when you chat to the gently wry Rodney Bewes.
Now 64 and still stage-struck the erstwhile Likely Lad is enjoying huge success with his second one-man show, The Diary of a Nobody.
The entertainment comes to the Wharf, Tavistock for two nights on September 10 and 11. He likes the Wharf, having played there previously with his acclaimed Three Men in a Boat.
If he didn't, he wouldn't return. With a full diary Bewes can pick and chose engagements.
Having finished a three-week run with The Diary of a Nobody at the Edinburgh Festival he is currently on tour and, in December, settles into the role of pantomime for the festive season.
'It's in Basingstoke,' he says. 'However many ways you say Basingtsoke you cannot make it sould like Miami! But I love it. I play an anarchic dame. It is the most clowning I can do — and I'm fascinated by clowns.'
In his mellow, well modulated way one senses he is ever eager for a spot of subtle clowning. Such as when Gloria Hunniford asked the name of his triplet sons in an interview and he told her: Tarquin, Falcoln and Storm. They were in reality called Joe, Tom and Bill!
'We wanted a friend for our daughter Daisy — and got three boys. My mum asked if it was a fertility drug and I said it was what the insurance companies call an act of God.'
He is currently writing his autobiography. While some actors may tire of references to past glories there is none of that from a grateful Mr Bewes.
He is delighted to have been associated with such a success as the Likely Lads. It means that people who may not normally come to see The Diary of a Nobody will take a chance because of his reputation.
Although a man whose good humour over-rides most irritations the one thing that annoys is when people say Men Behaving Badly is the Likely Lads of today.
'I don't think there is any comparison. It was beautifully written. The writers Dick Clement and Ian la Frenais are now both in Hollywood writing very good movies,' he says.
'The Likely Lads is being repeated on TV and it means I can do what I like,' says Bewes acknowledging his good fortune.
'I get enormous cheques. It is like winning the lottery now and again. Mind, it doesn't happen all the time!'
He says if actors don't like being reminded of previous roles 'they should sent the cheque back'.
'They need a swift kick up the rear because it is what made them famous. I think actors can get too grand and say: "Look. I'm important." They get very egotistical. You mustn't. They think what they do is important. It isn't important.'
He says his level-headed wife Daphne is one good reason he has no delusions of grandeur. The other is having a home on the Lizard where the local Cornish community regard an actor as no more important than a fisherman.
Bewes says he was ill as a child and never went to school — his mother taking the role of teacher and introducing him to a rich world of good books such as George and Henry Weedon's creation of 'Pooter' in The Diary of a Nobody. 'I didn't discover Noddy until I was 21,' he quips.
Ironically it was his habit of inviting the audience to meet him at the bar after a show that led to his current one-man success.
'When I was doing Three Men in a Boat I'd chat and get their feedback. Someone mentioned Mr Pooter and suggeted I did that,' he says.
'I don't know if Harry Potter will last 100 years but Diary of a Nobody and Three Men in a Boat have never been out of print.'
He is full of enthusiasm for a career that began at the age of 14 and is now in its 50th year.
'The opposite to enthusiasm is terrible. I worked in a play where as soon as the show ended one actor would grab his coat and rush out of the theatre. I thought: if only he put that energy into the performance.'
He reads reviews, but usually at the end of a tour so that they do not influence his performance.
'I was in a Pinter play once and the critic Kenneth Tynan said the acting as a whole was doubtful but the acting of Rodney Bewes achieved a peak. To this day I never knew if it was peak of doubtfulness!'