HE has had a long and successful career as a presenter and performer but now Brian Conley has run away to the circus.

The 53-year-old is playing Barnum on the tour of the hit musical which is coming to Liverpool Empire from Tuesday to Saturday.

Based on a true story, the show follows millionaire, philanthropist and inventor Phineas T Barnum on a journey through his life up to the moment he creates Barnum and Bailey’s Circus – 'the greatest show on Earth'.

"There was a lot to learn," said Brian.

"As well as the acting, comedy and singing there’s fire eating, juggling, acrobats, walking on stilts and of course tightrope walking.

"I’ve done many shows over the years but this without a doubt is the most physically demanding anyone could play in musical theatre.

"It was a good year before we opened that I started walking on a wire and I went to circus school two or three times a week.

"The wire’s the toughest as there’s so much more to it than you think.

"It was always going to be a challenge but I’m enjoying it. It’s everything I wished it would be."

Brian, who has performed at the Royal Variety Show eight times, also impressed the show's producers when he said he could eat fire before rehearsals even began.

He added: "Weirdly I know how to eat fire. I’ve been doing that in my live act for 20 odd years.

"It was just one of those things I always wanted to be able to do and I just knew if I learnt it I could weave a comedy routine around it just because it’s so unusual.

"As you can imagine I get into a right state with it and end up burning everything!"

Playing the lead role has also been like going full circle for Brian as Barnum was the first musical he saw as a young aspiring performer. Michael Crawford was in the role at the time at the London Palladium.

"Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would be playing him," he said.

"I found the character very interesting. He was the second millionaire and when he died he was the richest man in America.

"Barnum was also the first entrepreneur – the first Richard Branson.

"He’s just an interesting man. He was a dreamer who had a wonderful insight into the future.

"But it’s a love story. The show lives and breathes through Barnum and his wife Chairy, who is played by Linzi Hateley.

"People say it’s a circus story and that’s the glue that keeps it all together but he didn’t get into the circus until he was 64.

"He’s just big and bold and has amazing ideas while his wife very much tries to rein him in. It’s a very well written show.

"You immediately think of Michael Crawford when you think of Barnum so I watched his performance first and looked at him on the high wire and thought: ‘It can’t be that hard’...but it is.

"But that’s what makes it. That’s what gets the huge cheer at the end of the first half."

One of the highlights of Brian's career was portraying another great American icon Al Jolson in Jolson at the Victoria Palace for which he was nominated for an Olivier Award.

On television he is probably best known for playing Doug Digby on ITV's The Grimleys.

He added: "It was just nice to work with Noddy Holder and Amanda Holden. It was a cracking little series. I really enjoyed it."

Brian is currently working on a show for the BBC called TV That Made Me.

The chat show will see the presenter talk to celebrity guests about TV programmes that influenced them and what they watch these days.

But Brian told Weekend he still always finds himself drawn back to the stage.

"There’s something magical about a live audience and something that’s happening right here and right now," he said.

- Barnum is at Liverpool Empire from Tuesday to Saturday. Visit atgtickets.com/venues/liverpool-empire

DAVID MORGAN