PETER Peverley will regret forever the day he turned down the chance to see a live performance by the legendary North-East comedian Bobby Thompson.

"It was in 1987 just before he died," he recalls. "I was going through that teenage I am cool phase at the time. My dad asked me to go with him to see Bobby Thompson but I wouldn't. I do regret not seeing him."

He's making amends now with a one-man show, a tribute to the performer in cloth cap, tattered trews, holey "ganzy" and tab smoking in his hand who was dubbed The Little Waster and viewed as the living embodiment of Andy Capp.

The show at the Gulbenkian Studio Theatre in Newcastle will have an authentic air as the Thompson family have lent the actor Bobby's original costumes.

"He's someone I remember from my childhood," says Peverley, 31, a member of the Northern Stage ensemble.

"My first memories are when a record of him came out in 1978. I was about nine at the time. I remember listening to it with my family and seeing their reaction.

"Everyone was laughing and I found it incredibly funny. I got hooked, listening over and over again."

The fascination was helped as Washington-born Peverley could see similarities between his background and that of Thompson - who grew up just down the road in Fatfield.

He has been performing a tribute to the Little Waster since 1989 when a show called The Wearside Story toured the clubs with a ten-minute item spotlighting Thompson.

He also played him in shows aboard the River Wear ferry named after the entertainer and in a 1970s club night at Live Theatre in Newcastle.

"I popped up every now and then with my tribute. I'm fortunate to be a very busy actor but tried to find time for a little tribute every so often," says Peverley.

Over the years he gathered much information about Thompson by talking to his family and people who knew him. He also studied him through a video and CD of his act as well as a documentary made in the early 1980s.

"I got to know about his career and his life, trying to imagine what type of man he was because he was quite secretive.

"It's a celebration of his life and material."

Touring with Northern Stage's productions of A Clockwork Orange and Animal Farm finally gave Peverley the chance to use his spare time to work on a one-man show about the Little Waster. Various drafts have been written over the past two years but the lack of available dates meant the piece was never staged - until now.

"I tell the story as myself but slip into the Bobby Thompson persona now and then to comment on his life because his material is taken from things that actually happened to him," says Peverley.

"I can use routines about debt and fighting with his mother-in-law to comment on his own life. But I also parallel his life with events happening in the North-East at the present time. I try to tell his story in an honest way.

"I know his family very well and they have let me borrow his actual costumes. They are on display on stage throughout the show.

"His family has been very supportive about the production, and not just them but anyone trying to keep the Little Waster's memory alive."

He's been told that his Bobby Thompson tribute is "uncannily faithful" which he puts down partly to coming from the same area of the North-East. "When my family see me in other work they often say 'there's a little bit of Bobby in it'. That's because playing him was one of the first things I did professionally and he's very dear to me."

Peverley has resisted offers to play the clubs in the region as Bobby Thompson because he doesn't want to be doing the Little Waster full-time.

After the Gulbenkian run, his tribute will be put on hold as he works with the Northern Stage ensemble on a theatre version of William Trevor's novel Ballroom Of Romance. But he hopes to perform the show again, perhaps taking it to the Edinburgh Festival or touring the region with it.

"I will learn a lot putting it in front of an audience to see what works and what doesn't," he says.

"You find most people who come and see these tributes are Bobby's fans who say, 'let's go and have a night out and remember Bobby'. Most people know the act although it'll be interesting to see what people who don't know about him make of it. I think they'll find it appealing because any good comedy is universal and he was definitely good comedy."

l Bobby Thompson is at the Gulbenkian Studio, Newcastle Playhouse, on Friday July 7 and Saturday July 8 at 8pm. Box office (0191) 230 5151.

My dad

asked me to

go with him to see Bobby

Thompson

but I wouldn't.

I do regret

not seeing

him