The awful struggle for survival in Victorian England portrayed by the musical Oliver!, based on the famous Dickens' Book, turned the cast into superstars. Viv Hardwick reports on the real-life agonies of Artful Dodger (Jack Wild) and Oliver Twist (Mark Lester) while Ron Moody and Shani Wallis reflect on the film's success.

WITH six Oscars in 1968, Oliver! is still the most successful British musical of all time, but both the Artful Dodger and Oliver paid a huge price for becoming superstars.

Oliver! After They Were Famous, on ITV1 on Saturday, reunites the cast members of the hit musical movie for the first time in 35 years and features an interview with Dodger-playing Jack Wild, just before his two year battle against oral cancer led to surgery to remove his voice box and tongue.

Lionel Bart's musical, based on Dickens' famous story of the orphan who runs away from the workhouse, saw eight year-old Mark Lester plucked from 5,000 hopefuls to play Oliver Twist.

Lester reveals that he didn't turn to drink like Wild but "did a lot of drugs and late night parties and stuff and wound up in a rehabilitation clinic".

The programme also features Ron Moody, who played London gang leader Fagin; Shani Wallis, who was rumoured to have fought off interest from Elizabeth Taylor to play Nancy alongside the late Oliver Reed as Bill Sykes and 11 members of Fagin's pickpockets.

Wild is the face which haunts fans of the film because his cheeky good looks have long been replaced by the gaunt appearance of a man who has battled a booze addiction for ten years.

Having enjoyed two remissions from oral cancer following a course of radiotherapy, Wild talked enthusiastically about Oliver! and his happiness with partner Claire Harding before the bad news came that he needed surgery.

The 52-year-old says: "I look at what I've gone through in my career and I really shouldn't be talking to you now. I should be dead ten times over."

After Oliver! Wild moved to America where he starred in his own television series and became a pop star.

"In 1969 on paper I was a millionaire because I had got a couple of million dollar contracts. I would walk down the street and if I saw a Rolls Royce that I wanted to buy I could buy it."

But when work dropped away he began a painful fight with alcholism.

"From the late 1970s onwards I really wasn't in a fit state to do any work of any kind really. But thankfully I actually became sober on March 6th 1989 and thank God I've been sober since, ever since. It is now no problem for me and I'm thankful for that journey because I have learnt one hell of a lot," adds the actor who finally beat the bottle with the help of a religious group called Alchoholics Victorious.

Mark Lester started out as a baby in Fairy Liquid commercials and remembers thinking 'great, all that time off school' when he landed the role of Oliver.

He reveals that his tearful moments in the movie came from director Carol Reed putting onions under his costume and that he had four plates of false teeth because his own childhood teeth started to fall out.

Lester starred in a number of films until he was 16 and got to work in Japan, America, South America and all over Europe. At 18, and finally able to spend the money he had earned, he bought a Ferrari and spent most of his time partying.

He says: "I was probably a bit of a prat, I should think. But I came into all this money when I was 18 that was set up in trust funds. I went a bit wild."

He then got involved in Martial Arts, and sport led him to pursue a career as an osteopath. Lester, now separated from his wife, has four children and lives and runs his sports injury clinic in Cheltenham in Gloucestershire.

He says: "Oliver! has had a huge impact on my life, obviously. It's there and it's done and I'm immensely proud and grateful to have been part of the film."

Ron Moody was 44 when he starred as Fagin. He became hot Hollywood property after spending years treading the boards in the West End.

He recalls: "We had a wonderful time but the only thing that really annoyed me was when the boys kept picking my pocket. They seemed to think they had to do it and I'd think - go away, stop it! You're walking along and you find a hand in your pocket. They really wanted to show they could do it - the stealth!"

Moody declined many roles about the success of Oliver! Including the chance to take over from Patrick Troughton as Doctor Who in 1969 plus chances to star in Bedknobs and Broomsticks and Charlie And The Chocolate Factory.

In 2003 Moody took a role in EastEnders, playing the part of Edwin Caldicot, an old adversary of Jim Branning, and now says now that he only did it for the money.

Today, Moody is 80 and is happily married to Therese Blackbourn with whom he has six children.

Shani Wallis, who moved from Tottenham to America in 1964, was 35 and performing on Broadway when she took the role of Nancy.

The job offer came after she sang on the Ed Sullivan Show.

She says: "When the producer John Wharf asked me whether I could do a cockney accent, I said to him 'can I do a cockney accent - I come from Tottenham'."

Wallis then made a number of TV shows including Gunsmoke, Murder She Wrote and Columbo. Now 71, Shani has been married to Bernie Rich for 39 years and they have a daughter Rebecca and granddaughter McKenna.

And the legacy of Shani's starring role in Oliver! has been a surge in little girl's called Shani born from 1968 onwards.

* Oliver! After They Were Famous, ITV1, New Year's Day, 4.10pm.

Published: 30/12/2004