WITHOUT a shadow of a doubt, Henry McGee is one of the great unsung heroes of British acting - often the bridesmaid, but very rarely the bride.

He has been the foil to some of our classic comedians, like Benny Hill, Dick Emery, Tommy Cooper and Charlie Drake. He's taken some meaty dramatic roles, too. But Henry McGee is not a name you see in lights all that often.

However, he remains remarkably unfazed by this lack of superstardom.

"At least I keep working," says the man who made his first public appearance on the beach at Clacton at the age of four, singing a little ditty called Down Blue Moon Street before an appreciative holiday audience.

During a break in the regular Punch and Judy Show there was a session for amateur talent.

"I didn't want to do it, but my mum pushed me forward," says Henry.

Mrs McGee obviously thought her son might have inherited some of the family lineage, which dates back to an 18th Century actress called Kitty Clive, who was the comedy leading lady to David Garrick.

Even after that slightly dodgy beginning, it was always going to be the stage for young Henry.

He began his acting career holding a spear with La Comedie Francaise, hardly an auspicious start, but at least he didn't get killed off in the first 30 seconds.

He then had a spell with an open air theatre in Regent's Park and three years in rep in Northampton, before two years with a touring company in Australia.

After that, it was onward and upward on the British stage with numerous spells in the West End, mostly in comedy.

And it was on television too that Henry McGee became mostly known for his comic roles, although he did do dramatic as well, notably the lead in Grenada's Jimmy and the Desperate Woman.

"Somehow I seem to have the face for comedy," he said. "People don't take me seriously. I don't know why."

It's possibly the hapless, bemused expression he can conjure up, somewhere between a bewildered ferret and an anxious meerkat.

So magnetic are his facial expressions, your eyes are often drawn to him on stage even while other characters are speaking. He can steal a scene as easily as Fagin and it's a brave performer who appears with children, animals or Henry McGee.

The full array of his acting armoury will be on display when Henry appears at Malvern Festival Theatre from June 24-29 in Arnold Ridley's The Ghost Train.

He'll be sharing the platform with, among others, Jeffrey Holland and Louise Jameson, in a drama classic that was first produced in 1925 and has been filmed no less than three times.

It features ghoulish going-on at a small country railway station at the dead of night, as whistles blow, steam hisses and ghostly trains thunder past.

But the danger of missing Henry McGee is the scariest thing of all.

The Ghost Train plays Malvern Festival Theatre from Monday June 24, until Saturday, June 29. Tickets are £18-£10. Box office 01684 892277.