My first public performance was singing 'Maybe it's because I'm a Londoner' as a child on the open-air stage in Finsbury Park. I was then 'resting' until my early 40's and 1989 when i joined Parkside in answer to a newspaper ad. My voice fitted then as I was cast in 'The Roses of Eyam' with George Penfold, directed by Kathy Mead, where on the first night I dried on my first line (also the first of the play). Good Experience as since then I've not been thrown if I've needed a prompt.

Those were the days of Florence Hurst and Reg Oliver, both sadly no longer with us, and the play had a cast of 40. The group has changed over the years with many members moving on. Nowadays there is a different challenge, with lots of new young blood - I have to struggle to keep up! No-ones called me granddad yet (to my face!)

Favorites? It's difficult to say (or remember, It's amazing how quickly I forget the previous part as I try to learn the new one). I enjoyed playing Mortimore Brewster in 'Arsenic and Old Lace' and Willie Mossop in 'Hobson's Choice'., I remember Frank Weight saying I played a very realistic gorilla in one long forgotten pantomime, I had my first crack as Dame Christmas before last and repeated the role last year in Mother Goose. Great fun, and I will admit I don't mind wearing women's clothes now - although dressing up 'over the top' as a means of escapism is something I've always been willing to do.

And why carry on doing it? Well, I don't take it too seriously and there are some really good laughs as we struggle together to come up with an opening nights performance. It's a hobby that means you start something at the first rehearsal and finish it when you take the set down after the last. And, believe it or not Melvyn Freake is not my stage name.