Kenny Baker

I used to tour the theatres and clubs with an 18-foot luxury caravan strapped to the back of my Roller - it was a damn site more comfortable than most hotels.

I didn't really get involved too heavily with being an actual film person.

There are not very many opportunities for little people in the industry. There are small parts and character parts, but we don't get the girl-at-the-end-of-the-film kind of parts... but I was quite happy with what I was doing.

I miss being able to play my instruments - I'm too much of a physical wreck these days. Playing the vibraphone gives me backache, leg ache, and everything-else ache, and the asthma means I no longer have enough puff to play harmonica.

I skated in ice shows all over Europe and South Africa for 20 years. I love to ice skate.

I'm the smallest man in show business, and I've got the smallest bird in Britain nesting in my garden.

I've been in show business for 50, no, 60 years. I was approached in school to join a variety act.

There just aren't many little guys who are good actors. They don't get the training; they don't go to RADA. There just aren't the parts for dwarfs, and if you like it or not, you're typecast as a dwarf.

I started performing in 1950 at the age of 16 when I joined the Burton Lester's Midgets as a performer. Shortly after, I became a DJ with Mecca Organization before joining Billy Smart's Circus as a clown and shadow Ringmaster.