Biggins: I have been very lucky in my career (From Ealing Times)

Biggins: I have been very lucky in my career

11:00am Friday 7th October 2011 in Interviews By Rebecca Cain

Incredibly this it is the first time the 62-year-old has toured with a one man show in theatres, which will include clips and outrageous stories from his showbiz lifestyle.

He said: "I am really looking forward to it. It is going to be fun. I am talking about my career and the life I have had which is fantastic."

The likeable and bubbly actor has become a household name since he won I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here in 2007, which he said he thoroughly enjoyed.

Biggins said: "It was fantastic to come out and find the whole nation supporting me. it was very moving and gratifying."

But there is, of course, so much more to the star. He had a regular character in Porridge with Ronnie Barker, co-hosted Surprise Surprise with Cilla Black and worked with all sorts of different people in a range of shows.

And he said he has enjoyed it all- "There has been a great deal. It would be easier to say what I haven't liked but I have been very lucky."

The offers came in "thick and fast" after I'm A Celebrity. He said: "I was well known before but it gave me a new fanbase. A lot were children and teenagers which I found fantastic."

Biggins also starred in a popular episode of Come Dine With Me. He said: "That was fantastic- absolutely wonderful. It was great. The first night at Julia Bradbury's - it was hysterical.

"We clearly were drunk. I came home and I was violently ill which I haven't done since I was young."

Edwina Currie and Phillip Olivier were the other dinner guests. He said it was a very good group, which he won with his shop bought salmon mousse, winter beef stew and Auntie Vi's Trifle.

His good friend, Lesley Joseph, is in panto this year at the Wycombe Swan.

Biggins is a regular panto star, usually playing the dame, and this year is at the New Theatre in Cardiff in Robinson Crusoe with ventriloquist Paul Zerdin, so he rarely gets to see his friends in panto.

But in 2007 for the first time in years he took a break as he was in the jungle.

He said: "I am always working. The only year I did go and see friends I saw about 12."

Biggins loves panto and believes it is very important.

He said: "It is sometimes the first time people have been to the theatre. Not only children but adults enjoy it and then go to next year's panto or even better they will continue to go to the theatre throughout the year. It is a learning curve."

In his spare time he likes going to restaurants, eating with friends at home, travelling, reading and going to the cinema. But he said he does think it is difficult for the arts in today's climate.

"I think people aren't necessary going out to the theatre like they used to- once or twice a week, because of the expense they are going once or twice a month, if that. I think people are picking more what they want to see for value for money," he said.

But he added the industry naturally has ups and downs and people will continue to want to perform and people will continue to want to be entertained.

An Evening With Christopher Biggins is on Thursday, October 27 at 7.30pm. Tickets are £17 (£16 concessions) from 01494582900 or go to www.elgiva.com