THE unmistakable voice of Nicholas Parsons is suave and congenial on the telephone.

He is bringing his one-man show 'A Life in Comedy' to the Wharf, Tavistock on Sunday and says his list of engagements has never been fuller.

'I'm working hard and getting more work than ever before. These are what I call my golden years — a reward for all the effort I have put into my career in the past,' he says.

Parsons gleefully defies journalists' desires to pigeon-hole. He has done the lot — game show host, straight man, the West End, TV comedy.

'I have had so many different careers because I haven't stuck to just one thing. They have all over-lapped and I have enjoyed doing every one of them.'

He says in America people are respected for being versatile while in Britain it is viewed with a certain amount of suspicion.

'I think its more professional if you cover a broad spectrum.'

His one man show takes the audience on a roller coaster ride through an incredibly varied life and showbiz career.

Laughter, he says, is 'great therapy'.

'Making people laugh is a great reward and a great pleasure. And for some people it is almost a catharsis.'

He wanted to act from an early age. But his ambition went against the grain of a professional family that consisted of generations of doctors and clergymen.

'The idea I should want to become an actor was anathema to my parents. My mother was horrified and my father thought it was ridiculous — and that I should get a proper job.'

So he became an engineer — serving five years as an apprentice on Clydebank. The experience wasn't wasted because he added the rasping accent of a Glaswegian docker to his growing repertoire of voices.

'I was an odd-ball to them but I made many good friends. You have to have a sense of humour. It can defuse things dramatically. Comedy is a great survival kit,' says Parsons.

While in Glasgow he was doing everything from 'legitimate' theatre in semi-professional rep to broad variety.

So the young Parsons went from boarding school to Clydebank and struggled to break into the acting profession.

'You need emotional and mental stamina because it is tough. I had no help or training. I learnt it all on the hoof as I went along.

'I was always being discouraged by my parents. It was very sad but we all have sadness in our lives and you have to cope with them.'

He says it is a hard and very unsure profession 'full of insults and upsets, disappointment and frustration.'

'But you have to cope with them all and when you get a setback just like the song you pick yourself up, dust yourself down and carry on . . .'

Parsons regularly guests as the narrator in the cult musical The Rocky Horror Show — a role he originally didn't think he was right for, but one he has since made very much his own.

Ask him how old he is and his favourite answer to that journalistic obsession is 'about ninety'.

'Then people are quite impressed when they see me!' he reasons.'I don't talk about my age — but you are as old as you feel and some people do look younger than they are.

' The number of years I have bears no resemblance to the age I am!'

Working hard appears to be Parsons' elixir of youth.

'The buzz I get from performing keeps me sharp and on the ball. Once I get that I'm charged up and on full throttle until the audience want to go home!'