Afew weeks ago seven old friends were travelling together in a lift in a New York hotel. "We all looked at each other and said, 'we're bloody lucky'",recalls one of them, Nicholas Hammond.

Individually, the seven names might not mean much to you. Collectively, as the Von Trapp children in the 1965 film The Sound Of Music, they are recognised around the world.

It's hard to imagine that they're still talking about a job from 40 years ago. "Look at the joy the film brings," continues Hammond, explaining his 'bloody lucky' remark. "Who else goes through 40 years of their life and, as soon as people realise who you are, they come up and say, 'it's one of the most wonderful films and wonderful experiences of my life'. I feel very proud of being in it."

Hammond is talking about The Sound of Music - and his role Friedrich, the eldest of the Von Trapp children - as the 40th anniversary edition of the Rodgers and Hammerstein movie musical is released on DVD. He's on the line from Australia, where he's lived for the past decade, but recalling his last visit to the North-East 15 years ago, touring with Googie Withers and John McCallum in the play, The Cocktail Hour, to Newcastle Theatre Royal. "I remember the Brown Ale," he says. He has another link with the region as his mother was from Durham.

Acting roles took him Down Under and he stayed. "It's a fantastic country and the work is very good. The quality of film work is good. A lot of English actors and American actors come out here to work. My mail arrives in Australia, but when you're an actor, you have to move around," he says.

The Sound Of Music wasn't his first acting work. "I decided I wanted to become an actor because I saw Hayley Mills in Whistle Down The Wind. She was nine and I was the same age and thought, with the wonderful logic of a nine-year-old, 'why can't I do that?'," he recalls.

He told his mother of his intention to be an actor, so when she saw an advertisement for boys to appear in Peter Brook's film of Lord Of The Flies, young Nicholas was put forward and won a role in the story of schoolboys turning on each other after being stranded on a desert island.

"I loved it, I thought it was great. You get up in the morning and everyone is having a good time all day. It didn't remotely resemble work, which I thought was meant to be in a suit and catching a train. We were on an island in shorts and at night eating mangos."

Two years later he played Michael Redgrave's son in a film, which reinforced his observation that an actor's life was fun. "These people just seem to laugh all day and have a lovely time. I thought they were so much happier than all the other grown-ups I saw," he says.

Hammond's still happy to be an actor and equally pleased to re-visit The Sound Of Music. The seven "children" were reunited with each other and star Julie Andrews for the special features on the new DVD release.

The original movie occupied nearly a year of his life, with seven months filming and then touring the world promoting the movie. The seven have all gone their different ways - and some stayed in acting - but the bond achieved during filming means they still get along together when they meet up.

Hammond was always in awe of Julie Andrews. "I had two great wishes in my life when I was a little boy. My mother had taken me to see My Fair Lady at Drury Lane Theatre in London when I was nine. I saw Julie Andrews in that and came out saying that one day I wanted to meet that beautiful girl. Then I saw Prince Charles, who's 18 months older than me, and said I wanted to be his friend. I still haven't done the second thing, but I think we'd get on so well," he says.

"Julie is more beautiful, more vibrant and more extraordinary today than she was 40 years ago."

There was no downside to making The Sound Of Music as far as he's concerned. Everything about it was wonderful. "The easy answer is to say how horrible to be typecast but, for goodness sake, why would anyone object to something that's given pleasure to 500 million people?," he says.

Most of his schooling was conducted on film sets or backstage at the theatre with tutors and correspondence courses. "I learnt so much from those extraordinary people I was working with. When I went back to school, I found it so boring," he says.

"I went to Princeton University and took three years off acting. The way I got accepted was to agree that I'd continue studying and not work. I was good for the first few years, then in my final year did a film in the summer."

Hammond may not have found a role that lasts as long in the memory as Friedrich Von Trapp but did get the chance to play Peter Parker's superhero alter ego Spiderman in the 1970s TV series based on the comic strip. "I was doing a Tom Stoppard play, Travesties, in Los Angeles and for some reason CBS Television producers came to see me and said, 'there's our Peter Parker'," he recalls. "I thought it would be interesting to carry a primetime TV series on my shoulders, a challenge I should do once in my life."

* The Sound Of Music 40th anniversary special edition DVD is released by Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, £14.99 (one disc) and £22.99 (two disc).