HE was the phantom understudy -- the man you only caught only a fleeting glimpse of before he disappeared behind the curtains.

For Scotsman James Paterson is an Andrew Lloyd-Webber old-hand and his most famous moment came when he played understudy to Michael Crawford in the original Phantom Of The Opera cast.

"Six months into the show, Michael was taken seriously ill," said James.

"And the first understudy had an accident, so I got put on for my first appearance. It was a bit nerve-racking -- I'm not built in the same mould as Michael. He's six inches taller than me, for one thing, and so his suit didn't fit me. They had to take the trousers up!

"But I really enjoyed performing the role -- after all, it was what I had been waiting for. I ended up doing 130 performances during the three years I was with Phantom."

Since then, James has disappeared behind the scenes to spend some time as resident director on Phantom during its West End run.

"I'd always wanted to be a director," he said. "And having been an original cast member in the show, I knew a great deal about it."

Now, however, James has decided to prowl back into the spotlight and is using another of his many lives to make his return to acting -- this time as Old Deuteronomy in Lloyd-Webber's Cats, which is at Manchester's Palace Theatre until next Saturday.

"I hadn't auditioned for anything for about 10 years," he said. "And I was a bit worried about getting involved in Cats, which I know is a fantastically energetic dance show.

"But since I play the geriatric cat, I have to dance very little. It's the younger cast members who have to race around doing all that complicated choreography.

"I merely sit on top of this rubbish heap, wearing lots of make-up and a woolly jumper, and give the audience a bit of a lecture about how they should behave towards cats."

At 54, Fife-born James is experienced, rather than geriatric. He began his career with Scottish Opera, before switching to West End musicals, where his old friend Michael Crawford is about to revive his career in the latest Lloyd-Webber offering The Woman In White.

"He's playing Count Fosco, which surprised me, because he isn't the central character," said James.

"But Michael will be getting on a bit as well, and if you want to keep working you maybe have to look more at the character roles."

Since James has already shadowed Michael once, would he consider following him into the role of the devious Fosco in the future?

"Who knows?" he said, cryptically. "It depends how long he keeps doing it for."

It depends too, of course, on how long a run The Woman In White achieves. Recent Lloyd-Webber outings have failed to recapture the success of the composer's earlier works.

"His early ones like Jesus Christ Superstar and Phantom saw amazing success," said James. "But I thought some of the in-between ones were also very good. Sunset Boulevard had a great score, but it didn't run as long as the others. I wasn't so keen on A Beautiful Game, but Andrew can afford to take risks with his work now."

Reviving Cats can hardly be seen as a risk, however, as James admits.

"It's phenomenal. People still seem to want to see it. But being one of Lloyd-Webber's earlier musicals, there's some great material in it and the dance scenes are quite mesmeric."

Catch Cats at the Palace Theatre, Manchester, until September 11. For tickets, call 0870 4016000.