Philip Olivier passed the auditions for Never Forget with flying colours.

He had a body to die for, and a face and name that everyone knew. The rest he could pick up on the way...or could he?

“It was the dancing that got me,” he explains. “The routines were totally beyond me. After two weeks of rehearsals I hadn’t even managed to learn one, so I phoned my agent and said ‘you’ve got to get me out of this. I can’t do it. It was a real low point.”

The producers called in the dancing professionals and Philip, 29, was individually coached 12 hours a day for the final weeks of rehearsals.

“Suddenly it just clicked, and I could remember the routines the whole way through” he beams. “And I’m so pleased I stuck it out because now I’ve got another string to my bow and I’m loving every minute. It just shows what you can do if you put your mind to it.”

And if you come to see Never Forget, the Take That based muscial at the New Theatre from Tuesday, you can see for yourself what a natural Philip is.

He plays Dirty Harry in the show, one of five men who audition for a part in a Take That tribute band.

“I play a stripper who’s a few sandwiches short of a picnic,” Philip smiles. “It’s very tongue-in-cheek and a great comedy. I have to concentrate hard every night to stop myself from bursting out laughing, and I’m enjoying it so much I’ve extended my contract until Christmas.”

So with all this dancing, presumably Philip doesn’t have to work out to keep those famous pecs bulging?

“Actually I still have to go to the gym everyday because dancing is cardio-vascular not muscle-building,” he says. The girls must love that! Do you cause a stir when you walk in the door of the gym? “I do sometimes,” he says sheepishly, “but I’m not like that. I’m not a hold your head up and push out your chest kind of person.”

“But what about the calender?” I ask. Philip’s infamous saucy pin-up calender was a best-seller.

“My girlfriend has put the blocks on any more calenders, and the worst mistake of my career was doing a rear shot for it, because since then I’ve been asked to do naked modelling so many times. It’s as if I crossed a line, but I would never do that,” he adds.

Having been a soap star however, has given Philip an upper-hand on tour.

“Soap stars are the hardest working actors in showbusiness,” Philip explains. “You work from 8am-7pm at night and then go home with all next week’s scripts to learn. But it’s such a great learning curve for a young actor.”

And now? ”I have a lot more time because I’m only needed from 6pm-11.30pm every night and get the days to myself to explore this wonderful country of ours.”

So what happens after Christmas?

“Well, it’s nice to know I’ve got more options now,” Philip says, “because every door is open. And I love live theatre. I didn’t realise what everyone was on about until now.

“Besides I’m a Gemini, and we get bored easily and can’t sit still. So what better job than that of an actor?”

Philip Olivier stars as Dirty Harry in Never Forget, the hit musical with the songs of Take That, at the New Theatre, Oxford from Tuesday, September 29, – Saturday, October 3. Box office on 0844 8471588.