The bad guy in Cliff's Pavilion panto Jack and the Beanstalk is a big softie at heart, as SALLY KING finds out when she talks to Essex-based actor Glen Murphy

Baddie Fleshcreep in the panto Jack and the Beanstalk, currently running at the Cliffs Pavilion, is at heart a goodie in disguise

Forty-two-year-old Glen Murphy, who has lived in Essex for half his life and plays the part of Fleshcreep, is a lucky man. He left school at 15 with no qualifications and a dream of becoming a professional footballer or boxer.

By the age of 19 he was boxing at international level when he accidentally fought his way into the world of showbusiness.

Right now Glen rather likes showing the bad side of his nature. "After all," he says, "firemen are like knights on white chargers. They are heroes. It's great instead to come out on stage and have everyone boo at me."

Not quite everyone boos when he walks onto the stage - his own children aged 26, 23, 13 and 10 refuse to boo him, they still cheer.

Smiling, Glen commented: "The older ones didn't want to come the first time I did panto, but they did and they really enjoyed it. That's the thing about panto, there's something for everyone."

When Glen was still at school he showed great promise as a sportsman. He was an apprentice at Charlton and looked set for a career on the footy-field. However, like his father Terry, he was also handy with his fists.

"My dad could have been the boxing world champion. When Dad was 18 the papers said things like 'this lad will go all the way to the top'. He was in the very first programme shown on ITV which was of a fight he was in ."

His dad wasn't actually keen to see Glen have his head battered for prizes. "At the end of the day there is only one winner in boxing," says Glen. "The promoter."

But it was being in the right ring at the right time that gave him his stage-break.

At 19, Glen and his wife Linda had been married for two years and had a three-year-old child, he played semi-professional football, and was boxing at international level.

One day representatives from the Half Moon Theatre in East London approached the gym looking for a couple of boxers to lend authenticity to a play. "Naturally they chose the two best-looking," says Glen, "but I went! We just boxed around in the background.

"An actor told me about a job going as an ASM which would get me an Equity card. I didn't know what either were."

He soon discovered that ASM meant assistant stage manager and that an Equity card was crucial in landing any work on the stage, then spent three years in theatre learning his trade: "I was always cast as the thug on the left".

Boxing also took him into films. He appeared in Victor Victoria with Julie Andrews and James Garner. "I was a boxer whose gum shield gets knocked out over Julie Andrews," he laughs.

He soon had to make a decision. Should he fight professionally, or act professionally? The four days of filming had paid him £200 a day, the next fight had offered £400, of which he would see £120. The decision was made.

As well as London's Burning, Glen has continued to appear in theatre. Last year he was in the West End at the National Theatre in Dealer's Choice which won both the Olivier and the Evening Standard awards.

He has his own production company and is always working on developing new projects and has also enjoyed appearing in a double episode of Casualty.

Glen feels he could have been a real fireman if a stage career hadn't got in the way. "I think I'm made of the right stuff," he says.

He feels angry at the cuts that have faced the fire service. "It's outrageous," he storms. "They shouldn't mess around with the fire service. They shouldn't mess around with any of the emergency services. We're talking about lives."

Glen and Linda have now been married for 25 years. "We have been together for 28 years," he says fondly, a softie at heart.

"We're so lucky, you don't know yourself at 16, let alone anyone else, but we have grown together. We are as one."

London's Burning is back on ITV this Sunday. Jack and the Beanstalk is at the Cliffs Pavilion, Station Road, Westcliff, until January 16. Call the box office on 01702 351135.

Panto bad guy - Glen Murphy as Fleshcreep

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