CHRISTOPHER Biggins was one of the first to see the original production of The Rocky Horror Show more than three decades ago.

The performer - who plays the Narrator in a touring revival in York - recalls particularly that one of the leading players was injured. And it was a very unusual injury.

Rayner Bourton was playing Rocky Horror, the muscular monster created by alien scientist Frank-n-Furter. His costume was little more than a pair of gold briefs and a body sprinkled with gold glitter dust.

"I remember afterwards that he was in absolute agony because he got a bit of glitter on his penis. It got under the foreskin and was very painful. He had a huge bandage on it," recalls Biggins.

He saw the show at the tiny Theatre Upstairs at London's Royal Court Theatre during the first two weeks of the run before it became the cult musical it is today. The other week Biggins was back at the Court - the main auditorium this time - for a special Rocky Horror show as part of the theatre's 50th birthday celebrations. He was one of the Narrators as creator Richard O'Brien and other original cast members, including Patricia Quinn and Little Nell, returned to do the Time Warp one more time.

"It was absolutely fabulous. It was very special," says Biggins with typical enthusiasm.

He did appear in the film version, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, as one of the Transylvanians but now gets a leading role as the Narrator. He's doing odd dates here and there, including York, during the tour which features David Bedella, Olivier award-winning star of Jerry Springer The Opera, as Frank-n-Furter.

These days Rocky Horror audiences like to participate in the show. "The Narrator gets a lot of flak from the audience. They're forever shouting things back at me," says Biggins.

"It's a great job because you don't have to do it forever, you can just go in and out.. This is a wonderful new production and everybody is told not to answer back or the show would last forever. I remember seeing the show four or five years ago and I was very disappointed because I couldn't understand what was going on because the audience was so noisy."

His first time as Narrator was in Truro where the audience were "unbelievable", possibly because, as he describes it, "there were screams as this huge 6ft 3in fireman in the tiniest gold briefs you've seen in your life was picking up girls and dragging them out".

This is where his pantomime experience of dealing directly with audiences comes into play. Biggins is one of the country's leading Dames, and directs these seasonal shows too. He'll be back in a frock at this year's Edinburgh Festival in a one-man play about a Dame, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, by Emmerdale writer Philip Meeks.

"I've not done a one-man show before. It's very exciting at my time of life," he says. "I've got various little bits of TV to do and then I go straight to Edinburgh. But Rocky Horror is very nice to do and I may do another couple of dates as the Narrator later on."

l The Rocky Horror Show: York Grand Opera House, May 22-27. Tickets 0870 606 3595