Larry Lamb was an oil executive travelling the world when he got the acting bug. Spending his time wining and dining the world’s leaders, he got his kicks not through dancing girls or expensive restaurants but in amateur dramatics.

Deciding to jack in the day job, aged 27, for a life spent treading the boards, it was an unexpected departure then for everyone but him.

The 69 year-old laughs now when looking back at the sheer naivety and bravado of the move, but says at the time there was no alternative.

“I didn’t know what being an actor would be like but my life was stretching out in front of me and it was an opportunity for a major change. I thought let’s do it. I didn’t think about the risks – that didn’t ever come into it. But my career has always been about working hard.”

Unlike the remaining 90 per cent of his chosen profession, Larry has remained employed ever since. Major roles in Gavin and Stacey, New Tricks and EastEnders followed, along with a stint on I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here.

He’s just finished filming The Hatton Garden Job, and when I track him down in Manchester he’s mid-way through an episode of Sky’s Mount Pleasant.

But it was his appearance on Who Do You Think You Are? which changed everything, discovering that there was method to the madness, and that despite his own unhappy and uncultured upbringing, his adopted mother had links with the circus and descended from a family of showmen in the early 20th century.

His warts and all autobiography further proves that Larry isn’t averse to sharing, finding it liberating and cathartic rather than intrusive.

Which might explain his latest endeavour: an ‘evening with’ style format show where the audience submits questions and he answers them and expands on his life and career.

“I wanted to do something with a broader appeal,” he says about the upcoming ‘event at the Beacon in Wantage.

“Some people shy away from it, but I love it. I’m the opposite and I’ve been toying with the idea for a long time but I couldn’t figure out the format until I realised I spend a lot of time answering people’s questions and that it’s an easy way to connect with people.”

Let’s face it, he’s got a lot to chat about, starting with his terrible relationship with his father, as documented in his autobiography Mummy’s Boy: “I found writing the book very cathartic, and while I had a terrible time with my father, you have to love and let live. He had a terrible time himself, which is why he couldn’t handle it and it was good for me to tell the story of my life and work

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of my life and work my way through it by writing a book.

Born to fish and chip shop owners in North London, working his way up to becoming an oil executive was no mean feat. “ I couldn’t be in a respectable profession like becoming a doctor or dentist because I wasn’t any good at physics and chemistry, so I got into the oil business,” he says laughing at the irony.

Brilliant at negotiating and smoothing his company’s way, Larry soon became indispensible. “It was great money and a lot of responsibility, but actually what interested me was running around doing amateur dramatics,” he remembers.

An audition for a Shakespeare Festival in Canada offered him a way out, and he never looked back. “It was bloody hard work doing eight shows a week, but I loved it and met so many interesting people.

His first major TV job was New Tricks, then came Gavin & Stacey, James Corden’s award-winning comedy which was “lots of fun.”

Then Eastenders which “cut right across the TV market to a mass audience,” and changed everything, winning him a “Best Baddie award” in the meantime.

“I became a celebrity and my life changed a great deal. I was earning a living and enjoying an interesting life. And while you toe the line - you can always say I don’t want to do this. It’s always up to you.”

His obsession with genealogy wouldn’t go away so when TV producers from Who Do You Think You Are? approached him, Larry jumped at the chance to discover more about his family tree “Mostly they don’t find anything and a large percentage of investigations don’t come to anything,” he tells me.

Larry Lamb’s case was different; finding a long lost brother for his adopted mother as well as a family history of circuses and fairgrounds. Suddenly it all made sense.

But all the while, this idea for a meet and greet personal show was developing in the back of Larry’s mind. “For 5-6 years I’ve been working out a way to do a show that involves the audience, a way of meeting people all around the country. A lot of actors like to guard their privacy but I’ve never been like that, although I do like running into people who have no idea who the hell you are,

In the meantime, I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here came along, and Larry embraced it wholeheartedly “It’s like being on a chatshow for three weeks. People really get a feeling for who you are. I decided to be myself and kept calm. I didn’t lose my temper.”

Now he finally has time to tour his new “Evening With” show”, but with a reporting role on the One Show, stints as a radio presenter and a big film coming out next year, what next then for this multi-faceted man of the people? Perhaps a return to his Shakespearian roots? “I won’t be playing King Lear if that’s what you mean. It’s slavery, it’s like being in the salt mines,” he chuckles, before returning to the Mount Pleasant set. A modern day showman indeed.

An Audience With Larry Lamb is at Beacon Wantage tomorrow (Friday 10 March) beaconwantage.co.uk.