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MELVYN HAYES TALKS ABOUT HOW MUCH COMEDY HAS CHANGED SINCE HE BEGAN HIS CAREER. BY HANNAH STEPHENSON

- BY HANNAH STEPHENSON

SPRIGHTLY nonagenarian Melvyn Hayes, best known for his role as female impersonator Gunner ‘Gloria’ Beaumont in the Seventies sitcom It Ain't Half Hot Mum, is still getting job offers more than 75 years after starting out.

“I still think I'm a kid,” the 91-year-old actor declares, revealing that he goes to the gym twice a week and is up doing exercises in his lounge during the TV ad breaks.

It has taken him 37 years to complete his autobiography, It Ain’t Half Late Mum, in which he charts his humble beginnings as the third of four sons of Isaac and Queenie Hyams, a working-class Jewish couple of Polish and Dutch ancestry.

His father first worked on the fairgrounds and later owned a men’s outfitting shop in South London.

Young Melvyn left school at 15 and his failed attempt to become a jockey was followed by an unexpected theatrical career.

The cheerful entertainer, who began his stage and screen journey as a magician’s assistant and has never had an acting lesson, starred with young heartthrob Cliff Richard in classic movie Summer Holiday as well as countless plays, films and pantos, and taught the likes of Lesley Manville, Tracey Ullman and Leslie Ash at the famous Italia Conti drama school during rare resting periods.

But what did his parents make of his career?

“My father used to say to people, ‘My son’s an actor. He's been starving for years.”

He worked with Sir Cliff on three films - The Young Ones, Summer Holiday and Wonderful Life - and says today that as the singing heartthrob’s success grew during the making of those movies, he remained the same.