Since his hugely successful comic partnership with Eddie Large ended, Syd Little has been determinied to make it on his own. He tells Steve Pratt how his solo career has been going.

Something is missing. Syd Little looks naked sitting in the otherwise-deserted stalls at York Opera House. It's not his lack of clothes that disturbs - although the colourful Genie of the Lamp outfit is hardly normal daywear - but the fact that he's on his own. You still expect him to see Eddie Large by his side.

But Little and Large are no more. Syd went solo after Eddie's poor health ruled out a strenuous life on the stage.

In a way, Little has only gone back to his roots - singing and playing guitar in clubs.

One night, so the legend goes, a member of the audience jumped on stage and started doing a Cliff Richard impression. That was Eddie Large and a partnership was born, with club work giving way to bigger TV things after they won talent show Opportunity Knocks in 1971.

They were together from 1967 in Southampton to 2000 when illness forced Large to call it a day. Little feels that going solo was probably stranger for audiences than it was for him.

"It's taken a long time to prove there's life outside Eddie," he admits. "People say now, 'you're quite funny really', and I get to sing a song all the way through without him butting in.

"I think the public have more of a problem than I do. Some people say, 'that's great, we prefer you on your own', others keep expecting Eddie to come on any time now."

By continuing to work, Little has disproved the idea that double acts rarely make it on their own. "When the partner dies, it's harder for the other one. That's it as far as the public is concerned - that act is finished, you can't have one without the other. But both being alive and well is different," he says.

He'd have found it impossible to give up performing. "Not once it gets in your blood, show business. I'll retire when the phone stops ringing. It's such a buzz," he says.

"These last six years on my own, I've really enjoyed. I've been able to do the things I've wanted to do because my first love is singing and the guitar."

After more than four decades in the business, there are still fresh challenges to conquer - like playing Supersonic Sid, the Genie of the Lamp in pantomime, which he's doing this year in Aladdin at York Grand Opera House. He's played the Emperor of China for the past three years and before that Baron Hardup.

"Being my age - 63 - they always give you the older roles," he says. "It's a bigger part than the Emperor, but he'll definitely be Mancunian because I'm not very good at accents."

He's not short of work, for instance flying out to Ibiza to work after the Aladdin launch in York. He's put his guitar back in his solo act. "I always wanted to be a pop star. I wanted to be Cliff Richard," he admits.

"I hate it when people say they're bored. There aren't enough hours in the day for me, now my solo career has taken off again. I have DIY as well, I do all my own stuff at home and make model boats, although I've got loads I haven't finished."

He managed to get back on TV in five's Trust Me I'm A Holiday Rep series in which a bunch of celebrities were trained to work as oversea holiday reps."It was a bit scary when I did it," he says. "The second series was a lot more raunchy, the lads went skinny dipping and I wouldn't have done that. But if you're not on telly, people think you're dead."

He and his wife will find somewhere to live in York for the duration of the pantomime. He's expects his grand-daughters will get to see the show but hopes the same thing won't happen as last year when he made his entrance on stage.

"I was announced as the Emperor of China and the three-year-old shouted out, 'no, it's not, it's grandad'," he recalls.

* Aladdin: York Grand Opera House from December 14 to January 7. Tickets 0870-6063595.