Even at the age of 30, actor Paul Simpson was being offered the roles of children. But now he has decided the time has come to grow up, writes JENNY SCOTT. . .

AT the age of 31, Paul Simpson has finally decided to wave goodbye to his childhood. For it's only now the baby-faced actor is beginning to be offered roles where the characters haven't yet to buy their first can of shaving cream and their voices aren't still the high-pitched pipings of youth.

"I've moved on now," smiled the Oswaldtwistle-born actor. "Last Christmas I worked at the Manchester Royal Exchange, where I played a 12-year-old. I said, 'That's it. I'm not playing any more youngsters'.

"I changed my agent and I haven't played any children or gay men since."

Instead, Paul has landed the lead role in a Bolton Octagon production of Little Malcolm And His Struggle Against the Eunuchs -- a satirical '60s comedy about a student who starts his own political party.

"This is a part that's very much against type for me," said Paul.

"It's so easy for actors to become typecast.

"If you're always playing juveniles, it becomes a question of whether other people think you can do anything different.

"My problem has been that I'm so fresh-faced.

"I left drama school in London at the age of 22, but I looked about 16.

"That's when I initially started playing younger characters.

"Once people have seen you playing a certain part, they start using you again and again."

Indeed, in the past Paul has claimed that while on TV he only plays drug addicts or gay characters, on stage he's always cast as a juvenile.

"In theatre it can be quite difficult, if you've got a character who's 12 to actually employ a 12-year-old actor," he said.

"You can only work them so many hours a day and you usually have to pay for a chaperone.

"It's much easier if you can get somebody older who looks a bit fresh-faced.

"But I'm at that age now where I think I'm too old to play children any more."

And Paul's not the only actor in Little Malcolm to confound audience expectations, for in Little Malcolm he stars alongside Jeff Hordley -- known to soap fans as Emmerdale's resident bad boy Cain Dingle.

"For Jeff, doing this play will be great," said Paul. "You'd expect him to be playing a hard, gritty character, similar to Cain Dingle, but in fact his part couldn't be more different.

"He plays this gormless character called Nipple, who's a bit of a poet.

"He can't just tell you something straight -- he has to give you a three-page soliloquy on it.

"It's not at all the kind of character you'd expect Jeff to play.

"I'm not sure if Jeff knows this, but I actually auditioned for the part of Cain Dingle in Emmerdale. At the time, though, I looked very young and I didn't really stand a cat in hell's chance. It's still the case if I go for a part where the character's bang on my age, it's unlikely I'll get it."

Indeed, even the part of drop-out student Malcolm wasn't originally destined for Paul.

"Originally I was down to play a different character in this play," he explained. "Another guy was offered the character of Malcolm, but he turned it down. The director, Mark Babych, then auditioned lots of people for the role, but none of them were quite right.

"Then he got in touch with me and said he'd had a re-think -- would I take it?

"I could understand why people had turned it down -- it's a massive part. It wasn't like anything I'd ever tackled before.

"It's almost Shakespearean in its gravity -- it's like a Hamlet, so wordy and poetic.

"My character is an art student who has just been kicked out of college. He's a very intellectual guy, similar to the angry young men of the '50s and '60s without the sex appeal!"

Although he now finds himself playing a modern-day Hamlet, Paul's acting career kicked off when he was a 14-year-old pupil at Mount Carmel School in Accrington. It was from here that he was plucked from obscurity to play a part in the film Nature of the Beast.

He said: "The casting director had been around every single agency in Britain looking for two Northern boys.

"In the end they started trawling schools. They eventually decided they wanted the film to be set in East Lancashire, so they set up a base in Accrington and started auditioning kids from local schools.

"I basically decided to go along to get out of art classes at school. I had to beg the art teacher to let me go.

"They sent a posh car to pick me up from school and took me to the Dunkenhalgh Hotel and fed me prawns. I was never remotely interested in acting -- I just wanted to get out of school."

After his adventure in filmmaking, Paul had a series of TV parts in Rockcliffe's Follies and Coronation Street and did a BTec in performing arts at Accrington and Rossendale College, the alma mater of fellow Corrie stars Julie Hesmondhalgh and Vicky Entwistle.

"Then I went down to London to do a degree in acting," he added. "About five years ago I came back to the North and settled in Oswaldtwistle again. I hated London and I couldn't live there again. It killed me. It's all right if you've got bags of dosh, but it's no good being down there if you're an out-of-work actor."

Paul feels settled in Oswaldtwistle with his wife Donna and three-year-old son Henry. And he has some exciting projects lined up.

"Next year I've signed up for a series of plays called the Street Trilogy with a group called Theatre Absolute, which we're taking to the Edinburgh Festival," he said.

"I play a series of characters aged between 19 and 28. So slowly, but surely, I'm growing up!"

Catch Paul in Little Malcolm And His Struggle Against The Eunuchs at the Bolton Octagon from January 29 to February 21. For tickets call (01204) 520661.