Former EastEnders star Craig Fairbrass will miss his team's big game when he appears on stage in Blackpool -- and he couldn't be happier to do so, he told JENNY SCOTT. . .

IT'S ironic that the day Craig Fairbrass's football team finally makes it to the FA Cup Final, he's tied up in a theatre-based cricket match in Blackpool.

But, unlike most Millwall fans, the ex-EastEnders hard man is thrilled to be missing the final in Cardiff -- because it marks his first return to the theatre in 20 years.

"I'm not a really, really avid Millwall fan," he said. "But I'll definitely be watching them in the final against Man United on Saturday. There's no way I'd miss coming to Blackpool, though. It's about 20 years since I was last on stage and I want to find out exactly what I've been running away from!"

Indeed, it may not be the FA Cup Final but Craig has found himself involved in another crucial match on Saturday -- and it's cricket, rather than football. For the play he's starring in at the Blackpool Grand is a typically English leather-against-willow comedy called Outside Edge, which charts the goings-on at a small cricket club as a team prepares for a crucial match.

"My character is called Bob," said Craig, "And as the play goes on you find out more about his intriguing relationship with the other characters. It's all typically English -- very different to anything I've ever done before."

You can say that again, for in the past decade Craig has become best known for his action-man roles -- somewhat different to the sedate, cream-teas-and-cucumber-sandwiches world of the cricket pitch.

As the poker-faced Dan Sullivan in EastEnders he gave the Mitchell brothers a run for their money in the hardman-of-the-Square stakes, culminating in his standing trial in the Who Shot Phil Mitchell storyline.

"I do like the baddie roles," he said. "I loved every minute of Eastenders and Dan was a great part to play.

"Now there's all this stuff in the papers about them trying to get me to go back to EastEnders. You never know, I might!"

Post EastEnders, though, Craig seems to have transferred from soap star to film star with relative ease. So why have some of his colleagues from soapworld found the transition so difficult?

"It all comes down to the individual," he said. "It's a real dilemma when you leave such a high-profile show. I turned down all the Celebrity Big Brother stuff after I left because, if you have the guts to do it, you say, 'I'm an actor and I just act.' It's so easy to take the cheap ticket and it can destroy you."

It must help, of course, that in 1992, before his stint on EastEnders, Craig starred alongside Sylvester Stallone in the action thriller Cliffhanger.

"I was lucky to get involved in a big film," he said. "I was in Prime Suspect when it won an Emmy and an agent spotted me.

"Cliffhanger was a fantastic experience. I got six months in LA and a chance to work with Sylvester Stallone, who was amazing.

"Some actors can go through their whole life and never do a film. I'm very lucky."

And indeed, once the three-month tour of Outside Edge is completed, Craig will be back on the big screen once more, for he's just finished a film called Long Weekend with American actor Chris Klein, produced by the team that made My Big Fat Greek Wedding.

Bizarre though it is to think of a one-time soap star jetting across the Atlantic to juggle his schedules in Hollywood and Blackpool, it appears Craig is happy.

"I wouldn't change," he said. "I just love the variety."

Catch Craig in Outside Edge at the Blackpool Grand tonight and tomorrow. For tickets, call (01253) 290190.