When Rodney Bewes was a child in Bingley, confined to his bed with severe asthma, he made theatres out of old shoeboxes and put on little plays to pass the time.

Not long afterwards the young Rodney was appearing in television plays, leading to a role in Billy Liar.

“We were filming outside the Midland Hotel and a man shouted, ‘You’re Horace Bewes’s son’. I loved filming in Bradford,” says Rodney, also recalling the time he and Tom Courtenay were ticked off by an old lady for dancing in front of the city’s war memorial.

Rodney played Arthur, Billy’s pal, in John Schlesinger’s 1963 film, which brought him to the attention of producers of a new sitcom called The Likely Lads.

“They’d seen James Bolam in The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner and they saw me in Billy Liar. That was my break,” says Rodney, 74.

He’s best known as amiable Bob Ferris in the classic 1960s comedy, and its follow-up Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? While Terry was the drifter, Bob aspired to middle management and suburban wedded bliss with social-climber Thelma.

“People still remember me as Bob. The show reflected a changing North, people have a lot of affection for it. The DVDs sell well,” says Rodney. “It was down to good writing; Dick Clement and Ian la Frenais went on to write for Hollywood.”

Rodney spent his early childhood in Bingley, later moving to Luton. “I was a sickly child and the doctor said I’d be better off down south,” he says. “I’m boringly proud of being from Yorkshire though, it’s in my blood.”

He’s returning to Bingley this month with one-man production A Boy Growing Up, based on a collection of Dylan Thomas short stories.

“They’re lovely, funny stories. When I was 15 I saw an actor called Emlyn Williams read them in the West End, not long afterwards I was at drama school. I was a working-class northern lad surrounded by posh kids with famous parents,” says Rodney.

He performs A Boy Growing Up as a BBC radio man. “I don’t play Dylan Thomas. I do it with a microphone and script, as if in a studio,” says Rodney. “I did lots of radio when I was a boy, it’s a world I know.”

The show went down well at last year’s Edinburgh Festival and now he’s touring the UK. It’s his latest one-man show, following others such as Jerome K Jerome’s Three Men And A Boat and Diary Of A Nobody.

“I’m still touring in my ten-year-old Ford Mondeo. Thankfully this show is minimalist, props-wise,” he smiles. “I enjoy the intimacy, the audience interaction. When I did Three Men in a Boat, two people came late and sat on some steps, so I handed them cushions from the boat. The audience like those touches, I enjoy their feedback in the bar.”

Rodney’s TV appearances were in shows like Z Cars and Dr Who, then came Billy Liar.

“I was friends with Tom Courtenay and when I read his script I wrote to the casting lady. John Schlesinger filmed Tom and I talking on a roof in Mayfair; we were sharing a house at the time so we just chatted about having steak and chips for tea.”

A Boy Growing Up is at Bingley Arts Centre on Sunday, February 24. For tickets, ring (01274) 431576. For more details visit rodneybewes.co.uk.