THE cornerstone of Warren Mitchell's career has been the ability to play a character much older than himself and he's still at it at 78.

The man who was only 40 when he erupted on to British television as the shock and awe pensioner Alf Garnett in 1965 will now appear on stage at Malvern as a 90-year-old furniture dealer in Arthur Miller's The Price.

What happens in 10 years time is anyone's guess, but there can't be many theatrical roles with men of 108.

For the moment though, Mr Mitchell is looking forward to his first visit to Malvern, although getting near 80 he won't be running up the Hills.

But age has in no

way withered his unique talent.

Earlier this year, when The Price was in the West End, he won an Olivier Award for his portrayal of Solomon, the old furniture dealer who is called in by two brothers to look over their late father's effects.

The setting is a tiny tenement flat in New York City, where the father lived after losing most of his money in the 1929 Wall Street crash.

A review of the West End production described, Mitchell's performance thus: "Warren Mitchell gives a performance to treasure, playing every move and one-liner immaculately as he wanders around the bric-a-brac in the room, bent double and breathless, delivering advice and anecdotes from his long life.

"It is the wisdom of the survivor, from the lips of a Russian Jewish migr who has seen it all and lived through it all and bounced back through the decades."

No wonder they gave him an award.

But his acting career might never have worked out that way at all.

"I think it started when I was aged four," he said. "I told a dirty joke to my family, my father laughed, clipped me round the ear and sent me to bed. I learned then that showbiz is quite tricky and audiences fickle.

"At seven, I was singing and shuffling off to Buffalo, at Gladys Gordon's Academy, in Hoe Street, Walthamstow.

"Aged eight, I retired from the stage - it all seemed a bit cissy and I preferred to play football on Sunday mornings and watch my beloved Spurs in the afternoon, a habit I've never been able to break."

But in Oxford in 1944, the young Mitchell met Richard Burton and together they joined the RAF, a short lived adventure since Japan surrendered before they got in a blow.

However, Burton's account of the acting profession convinced his new friend the theatre might be more in his line than nuclear physics back at Oxford.

"So I had two jolly years learning posh at RADA during the day and was duly de-poshed at the Unity Theatre at night," Mitchell added.

"My entry into the profession in 1951 caused no great excitement. I was mostly on the night shift at the Walls Ice Cream Factory, the Standard Bottle Company and at Euston Station I learned to ingratiate myself for a porter's tips.

"Television, which was just getting into its stride, opened up a whole new field of unemployment for me - until, at last, one Anthony Aloysius Hancock offered me a small part in Hancock's Half Hour.

"In the years that followed, I played funny foreigners, sinister foreigners and pathetic foreigners in the theatre, TV and film.

"It actually became quite difficult for me not to speak with an accent, which used to worry the local greengrocer somewhat."

Then in 1965, he was handed a script that had already been turned down by four other actors.

It was 'Til Death Us Do Part.

"I leapt at the chance of playing such an awful man and I've been playing him on and off for the last 25 years."

At Malvern, Warren Mitchell will be in one of his off periods.

An award-winning off period.

Don't miss it or Alf Garnett will be round your house.

The Price plays Malvern Festival Theatre from Monday, September 20 to Saturday, September 25. Tickets £14-£22. Box office 01684 892277.