VICTOR Spinetti may be in his ninth decade but he is still going strong – and he is now coming to Basingstoke to play a drunk butler in Peter Gordon’s Murdered to Death (pictured).

The famously animated Welsh actor celebrated his 81st birthday earlier this month and is delighted to still be treading the boards and making audiences laugh.

“It’s marvellous – I can’t believe it. I’m so lucky to be working and doing a job I love doing,” he said.

“People talk about retiring but if you love your job then why stop? Otherwise, I would sit at home and watch Bargain Hunt.”

Murdered to Death, which is playing at The Haymarket from September 28 to October 2, is a good-natured spoof of Agatha Christie’s whodunits.

Describing the play, Spinetti said: “It’s Agatha Christie a foot-high off the ground. We know Miss Marple, so here it’s Miss Maple and it’s about a niece who is going to inherit a house, and you know someone is going to get bumped off.

“Norman Pace plays the detective, who is absolutely useless, and so the fun is that Miss Maple always gets the best over the detective.”

“It’s the most fun part I have done in years,” he added. “As a butler, you come in and do things and then get a chance to sit in the wings and listen to the laughter until the bell goes.”

The Ian Dickens; production, which started touring in May, also reunites Spinetti with Sandra Dickinson, with whom he starred in West End show Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

Spinetti first sprang to international fame after starring in The Beatles’ 1964 film A Hard Day’s Night – as well as Help! and Magical Mystery Tour.

“George Harrison said ‘you have to be in all our films now, otherwise my mum won’t see them because she fancies you’. And this was in the middle of Beatlemania. There was no ego. They were just as amazed as everyone else,” said Spinetti.

He also went on to adapt John Lennon’s book In His Own Write for the stage with Lennon, and directed it at the behest of Laurence Olivier.

“He wanted me to direct it because no-one understood it, so suddenly I was directing at the National Theatre!” he marvelled.

He also directed productions of Hair and Jesus Christ Superstar in Europe and gave award-winning turns with Joan Littlewood’s Theatre Workshop.

“I never made a plan”, he said. “I’m a jobbing actor. A lot of actors don’t want to even leave London but if I get a call from my agent about a job I like, I go for it.”

Tickets to see Murdered to Death are priced from £17.50, or £14.50 for matinees, with concessions available. They can be booked from the Anvil Arts box office, on 01256 844244 or online at anvilarts.org.uk.