The Way I Was: Mr Pastry picked me because I looked daft: Roy Hudd tells Nicholas Roe how he was inspired by one of slapstick comedy's finest

IT WAS 30 years ago, and only the second or third pantomime I'd ever done. I was the Captain's Mate in Dick Whittington and the big star was Mr Pastry, who was a great slapstick comedian of his generation - Richard Hearne, his name was. He was my great hero, not so much for the character as his expertise as a performer.

On the first day of rehearsal he said, 'Now I'm going to do my shoe shop sketch in this,' which is what the picture is from. And then he said, 'Who wants to be the yokel in it?' Every single male member of the cast who wasn't top of the bill put up his hand. People won't do it without getting paid now, but we wanted to do anything. I mean, I fought to get in the opening chorus and things like that, though I only had a small part. I was hungry to learn.

I'd just come out of the RAF and I'd done a double act and all this sort of stuff - I went to Butlins as a Redcoat with a pal of mine, then we went into variety for about two years and then he decided he'd had enough and I went solo and I really had to fight to get on.

The casting for this production didn't seem to matter at all because it was only playing half of a double act again, but then Mr Pastry called for volunteers, and that sketch was the most important thing to me. He walked along the line and I looked the daftest so he said, 'Yeah, you're about right for it, you'll do.' It was a smashing sketch. I used to come on and do an impression of Bernard Bresslaw, 'I want a pair of rubber boots,' you know. He would take hold of me and try and get my own boots off, then the shop would fill up with customers so he'd ignore me and serve all the others, with my foot still trapped under his arm - up and down ladders, all that sort of thing.

Then he did one wonderful gag which I've never forgotten, which used to make me laugh every night.

Eventually, he'd say, 'Oh, you're still here,' and take this boot off and there was a sock with a big hole in it. He'd roll this sock down to expose the foot, and he used to blow on it and remove a bit of fluff, which was a lovely bit of business, and he'd say, 'You're going on a very long journey.' Wonderful, wonderful surreal joke. A terrific thing.

When I wasn't on in that sketch or doing my own little bits and pieces, I used to stand and watch Mr Pastry - everybody did who cared about comedy.

He was a master of slapstick, you had to admire him like mad. It's not that any of this was important to my career as such, but it made a difference to me inside.

I was very insecure at that stage, like every young performer. You don't know where the next penny's coming from, you're fighting in the dark to find a personality, to find an approach. That pantomime was the first good review I ever got, and it was for this sketch. The review was in the university magazine, Isis, and the chap who did it was Michael Billington, now drama critic of the Guardian.

We ran for 10 weeks at Oxford, and after it finished Mr Pastry gave me a Parker pen. Engraved on the side was 'Thank you for a great performance - Mr Pastry'. I had it until three years ago and then some bastards nicked it out of my dressing-room. If they've still got it, can they please let me have it back?

Roy Hudd is currently touring in Ray Cooney's farce, 'Two Into One'.

(Photograph omitted)