FAMOUS for being one of the Royal Ballet Company's shortest stars, Wayne Sleep tells Kerry Ann Eustice more about his long career.

A womanising, gin-swigging letch is by no means the first image which comes to mind when someone mentions the name Wayne Sleep. But the renowned dancer, choreographer and actor - so compact Royal Ballet wrote in parts to suit him - is taking on the bad old lad role of Uncle Willy in High Society, coming to Bromley next week.

"He's after anything in a skirt which moves basically," said Wayne.

"My part is a great part. I get to sing a song about gin, and Willy also sings about his ex wife and how he couldn't put the bottle down. I get drunker and drunker as the evening goes on."

The show, about a perfect, high-class wedding, with everything decided except the groom, is famed for chirpy musical numbers such as Who Wants to be a Millionaire?

"It's quite sophisticated and it's not over the top or cheap," said Wayne.

"Of course the songs are wonderful. I get to sing Cole Porter who is like the Shakespeare of music."

It's clear Wayne relishes his acting work - he enjoyed a stint as a German-catholic surgeon in Arsenic and Old Lace and as the Child Catcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang - yet it's dancing which offered his career highlights.

He said: "Touring the world with the Royal Ballet Company as a principal dancer was a big achievement.

"Puck (right) was one of my favourites. And dancing with Princess Diana was a great moment."

He added: "She asked If I would teach her, so I did. She was a very good dancer; she'd been trained since school as a ballet dancer. We did a big number to Billy Joel's Uptown Girl.

"She wanted it to be a big surprise for her husband, which it was. He nearly fell out the box," he laughed.

Episodes such as this and I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here! helped establish Wayne as a household name.

Of his time in the jungle, Wayne said: "I got £88,000 for my charity. I can't believe I stayed until the day before the end.

"I did not realise how popular people became after they had been on it. I thought it was just a TV show but it does have an impact. Little kids knew who I was at my dance classes"

And as for munching on maggots and grubs in the gruelling live tasks?

"In the jungle you'd eat anything, you're so desperate for food," he laughs.

Rubbing shoulders with celebrities in the jungle is not the only place Wayne has encountered other stars.

He said: "The great thing when you achieve something, is you become a name and people know who you are. To have Liza Minnelli come to my shows, Angela Lansbury do This is Your Life for me and working with Peter Ustinov on Death on the Nile was amazing.

Wayne's fame has also allowed him to give something back to his profession. He has been running dance workshops across the world for sometime.

He said: "It's to do with giving back what you've learned, trying to inspire and raise the standard of dance."

High Society, The Churchill Bromley, May 28 until June 2.