THEY say you should never work with children and animals - try telling that to Eddie Murphy.

The have-a-go movie star has broken the rule on more than one occasion and it certainly hasn't done him any harm.

In fact since the former bad boy decided to turn his hand to feel-good family films, he's clocked up some of his biggest hits.

"Yeah, they say don't ever work with kids or animals. I've done both," he laughs. "I'm Dr Dolittle and now I'm working with a whole bunch of kids in my new movie and in my experience it's only ever been a good thing.

"I'm at that age, I'm 42, where a guy would have kids of his own and all that. So I'm playing right were I'm supposed to be," he adds.

To say he has experience of fatherhood himself is something of an understatement. Murphy is a proud dad to five children by his British-born wife Nicole Mitchell.

But while he's clearly besotted by his brood, he's more than happy to admit he's not always a hands-on dad.

"I don't do a lot of diaper changing, all that kind of stuff, very little in fact. I'm a bit of a diaper-phobic."

It's a far cry from the character he plays in his latest movie Daddy Day Care. In the film, which also stars Angelica Huston, Murphy plays an unscrupulous marketing executive who sells sugary snacks to children in the guise of nutritional sustenance.

When he loses his job, he and a colleague hit on the brainwave of opening their own day care centre for children - under the misguided apprehension that it will be a breeze.

"It's a great premise for comedy," explains Murphy, "because here you have a father who hasn't had time to spend with his own children and all of a sudden he loses his job and he has to be with these kids all day long.

"It was supposed to be a temporary thing, but as his relationship with the kids develops and they start to bond, it turns into this beautiful, sweet thing."

Murphy admits he brought his own experience of fatherhood to the film. "As a parent I know how to relate to a kid in a cool way," he grins. "Being a parent made it easy to act on screen."

Even so, he admits he was taken aback by just how talented some of his new junior co-stars were, particularly three-year-old Khamani Griffin, who plays his on-screen son.

"He's a complete natural. He has all these natural gifts.

"We really did have smooth sailing working with these kids. The only difficulty was everybody's schedule was changing all the time, it was hard to get a routine, so these kids would come in for breakfast and have a donut and soda and you'd be like, 'No, no!'

"They'd be running all over the place afterwards they were so hyped up.".

It's difficult to imagine Murphy was once one of Hollywood's biggest hell-raisers, but that's the reputation he gained for himself when he first burst onto the showbiz scene.

At the tender age of 19 he was one of the youngest stand-up comedians ever to appear on America's hit TV show Saturday Night Live, and his brash attitude and foul-mouthed act quickly won him a huge following.

When he crossed over from small screen to big, his first seven movies made more than a billion dollars profit, and it seemed he could do no wrong with successes such as Beverly Hills Cop and Trading Places.

But as the hits rolled in, so did the partying, boozing and women. At one point the young star was hit with paternity suits by three ex-girlfriends.

"I wasn't a good person then," he admits. "Success blinded me. I was so busy living the good life I'd always fantasised about that I let my ego get out of control."

Murphy's seemingly unstoppable career also ground to a halt in the 90s with a string of flops and it wasn't until he took the unlikely route of family entertainer that the former bad boy was back on track.

Both The Nutty Professor and Dr Dolittle movies were huge hits at the box office and he stole the show as the voice of an animated donkey in Shrek.

Not surprisingly, these days he is more than happy to stick with what has obviously turned out to be a successful and very lucrative career path.

"No one wants to see me in a heavy drama. I'm in the comedy business. If I was in a scene and I broke down crying and everybody in the room started crying, I don't think I'd get the same thrill."

Instead Murphy is more than happy to keep us rolling in the aisles.

"When you go to see one of my movies, you're going to have fun. That's what I'm selling as a comedian. You go along specifically to get a laugh. I was always a stand-up comedian, that's what I am more than anything."