SIR Norman Wisdom proudly reveals that come February 4 next year, he will be 90. But rather than slowing things down, he recently agreed to a screen liaison with a fellow national institution half his age.

Entering Coronation Street as caddish fitness instructor, Ernie Crab, utilises the slapstick genius which cast Norman in the mould of greats like Charlie Chaplin and Laurel and Hardy.

He was best known as Norman Pitkin, the hapless, but lovable character led a merry dance by the formidable Mr Grimsdale in a series of monochrome movies.

Every question I ask is answered with a double take, as if it is Mr Grimsdale who is doing the asking. Having played the clown for so long, I don't think Norman can help himself.

"How long do you want, hour 'an 'alf?" he laughs, when I ask if he can spare a few minutes to discuss the Street. So how did one national institution come to be appearing in another?

"I don't know," he says genuinely. "My part is what in showbusiness is called a spit and a drag. It means a small part. I was walking past a lady, who I found attractive, and I was winking at her and smiling, and because I was doing that I tripped up. I then had to go into a door which wouldn't open."

A bit of that trademark Mr Pitkin slapstick, I suggest. "Yes," Norman adds. "It was fun and they were nice people, good performers, good chums, everybody was very friendly and I enjoyed it."

Will he pay a return visit to Weatherfield? "I might if they ask me," he answers. "But, of course, I'm getting on a bit ... I'm 23!"

He's joking, of course. Is he looking forward to his 90th birthday? "Well, I don't want it to rush because I won't have long left then," he replies. "I feel good. I exercise in the morning. I have a treadmill and an exercise bike.

"I've always liked to look after myself. But I don't watch what I eat. I eat anything that comes along. I like stew and good ordinary food. I don't smoke or drink. I smoked until 1980 then stopped because I thought smoking wasn't good for you."

He corrects my suggestion that he's appeared in 18 films and lots of other things.

"Nearly right, I've been in 17. I can't say which are my favourite. It's very difficult. I recall so many.

"The films - each and every one of them I entirely enjoyed, and I'd love to do another. I have a story and I'm hoping and praying that my agent will get someone to do it. It's a very funny JB Priestley story called Adam and Eagle.

"It's about a bloke who's getting on in years, like I am, and he's in love with a young lady. He tries to get her to love him and she likes him because he's a decent bloke. There's fun in that, but there's also a chance of some really good acting."

Would he prefer to be remembered as a lovable clown or a serious actor?

Useful

"What, when I kick the bucket?" he quips. "I'd like people to remember that I was a decent bloke and that I was useful in showbusiness."

Thankfully, Norman is still full of life, but he is considering stopping appearing on stage and now prefers to spend increasing amounts of his time at his home on the Isle of Man.

He also keeps a home in Epsom, which is convenient for work and seeing his grown-up son and daughter, Nicholas and Jacqueline, and two grandsons.

Although he divorced in 1968, he has never remarried. I ask why? "Because I didn't want to," he replies. "I haven't met anybody who I wanted to marry. You never know, if I had I might have done, who knows."

He pauses, and then begins another performance: "Such is life and life is such and after all it isn't much, first to cradle, then a hearse, it might have been better, but it could have been worse.

"But I have thoroughly enjoyed my work. Coronation Street is only a little bit of stuff. It's nothing compared to what I used to do in films.

"I'd love someone to do that film with me. Someone like the old Rank Organisation would be ideal."

I ask why people still love Norman Wisdom? He reverses the question and asks me what I think.

I say he represents what was great about the British film industry. It was innocent, fun, and non-political. It was just straightforward humour.

"I agree," Norman says enthusiastically. "Those films went all over the world."

Does it strike him as strange that a lad from Marylebone should become so famous?

"I feel a very lucky fella," he beams. "I had a tough childhood. My parents divorced and I was living with people who my father didn't pay. They threw me out. I have had to sleep in fields and in haystacks with nothing to eat.

"What's driven me has been having a tough childhood and then suddenly being treated nicely and well. I realised that the key to happiness was to work hard and to try to be nice.

"What drives me to continue working is the fun of it."

And how does it feel when people laugh at him? "Oh, it's nice," he says warmly, "I laugh with them."

Coronation Street is on Friday at 7.30pm on ITV1.

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