IT would not be surprising if comic actor Steve Steen was suffering from multiple personality disorder . . .

The familiar face from Whose Line Is It Anyway? is set to perform a whopping 67 characters on the Bolton stage as part of a national tour of an adaptation of Bill Bryon's Notes From A Small Island.

So, with such a turnover of characters in the one man show, how long does it actually last?

Steve smiles: "Seven and a half hours! -- No, really, one hour and 20 minutes."

This is the second Bryson adaptation Steve has toured with on stage. Both were adapted by Paul Hodson, and the first, The Lost Continent, took to the stage almost six years ago.

Steve said: "When we started rehearsing the first play we realised we had to dispense with props and costumes.

"The shows need pace and the props and costume seemed pointless. I play Bill Bryson and all the characters he meets along his journey. It takes a great many accents swapping from one character to another. People ask how do you do it, but it is like anything, you just get on with it."

Steve was best known for his television appearances in Whose Line . . . before he went to audition for the part in The Lost Continent. He said: "I just thought I didn't stand a chance. American actors were also auditioning, and I was the last person to go in, and I got the part."

It was at that point that Steve decided he better read Bryson's works!

He said: "I am now a convert. His stuff really does make you laugh out loud."

His performances in the play are a return to his first love, acting. He said: "My grounding is in acting. That is what I chose to do, but people must have thought I had the face for comedy."

Steve has since done a stand up routine, before teaming up with Jim Sweeney. The pair then began improvisation on stage. He said: "The style came from basic actors' theatre workshops. The exercises help the actors learn different techniques. Jim and I developed this and turned it into something much bigger to entertain on stage."

The pairing continued with the improvisation throughout the seventies and into the eighties, before the man who went on to produce Whose Line for radio and television approached them. Steve said: "He said he was thinking of putting what we were doing onto radio and would we be interested. That was in 1983, and we never heard a word off him until 1990. Finally we were invited in and did the show for three and a half years.

"There are no more planned which is a shame. We still do the comedy store though in Manchester and London. What most people did not realise was that it is a fantastic live event. There is definitely a sense of lions and the Christians. People like to see you succeed, but do not mind the odd fall every now and then."

But the burning question on almost all the minds of the audience has to be is it scripted in any way?

Steve replied: "Nothing is ever prepared."

Steve appears in Notes From A Small Island at Bolton Octagon on Wednesday Tickets, £12 and £10, or £10 and £8 concessions, are from 520661.