IT is the world’s longest running show.

The 60th birthday of The Mousetrap will be celebrated on November 25.

And as part of the birthday celebrations, the show, which has run continuously at the West End since 1952, has gone on the road for the first time and is coming to Southampton’s The Mayflower theatre.

Karl Howman will be part of this theatrical first and he is delighted.

“I’m really chuffed,” says the 59-year-old.

“It’s a notch on your belt, to have done The Mousetrap, especially when you look at the other people who have done it before.”

Richard Attenborough was among the show’s original cast while one of its stars, David Raven, made it into the Guinness Book of Records as ‘most durable actor’ for his 4,575 performances as Major Metcalf.

“The Mousetrap is celebrating its 60th anniversary and it’s my 60th birthday next year,” he adds.

“Last year it was the 25th anniversary of Brush Strokes.

It’s all anniversaries!”

Brush Strokes was Karl’s best-known role.

He starred as loveable rogue Jacko in the series, which ran from 1986 to 1991.

Despite playing a number of straight roles for stage and television, it is for comedies such as Brush Strokes that he is best known.

“I didn’t deliberately set out to work in comedy, it’s just the way it worked out. I’d been in plays and things like Minder, The Sweeny, The Professionals and Van der Valk when I started working with John Esmonde and Bob Larbey who wrote The Good Life.

“I did A Fine Romance with them and from that they wrote Brush Strokes and then Mulbery for me. It was a lovely experience. It opened a lot of doors for me for everything else. Now I can direct and do all sorts of things and none of it would have come if I was still jobbing around, like I was before. I was a lucky boy!”

Among Karl’s directing projects are two films with his old friend Ray Winstone, which he also co-wrote.

Fathers of Girls came out in 2009 and also starred Karl’s daughter Chloe while their forthcoming project is A Silent Bark.

“Ray has been a friend of mine for years,” he says.

“I was in the film Stardust and he was an extra in it. That was back in the early 70s. I’m godfather to his daughter and our children have grown up together.

“He starred in Fathers of Girls which I co-wrote and co-directed (with business partner Ethem Cetintas) and we’ve written a new film that hopefully will go into production next year.

“Directing is an area that I’ve wanted to do for ten years. I was doing plays but I was working more and more behind the scenes. I set up a company and was writing and directing adverts. It’s all been very organic.

“I wrote and directed plays for my two daughters originally. Chloe came out of drama school and she’d done television but she hadn’t done a play. I hired a little theatre off Shaftesbury Avenue and put her and all her friends from drama school in. We had a ball! I did some more too after that.”

Karl says that one of the best things about getting older is the choice it offers him, whether that’s directing films which open on Leicester Square or appearing in plays like The Mousetrap.

“You don’t know what’s round the corner,” he says.

“I got a call from the producer of The Mousetrap (Sir Stephen Waley-Cohen), who I’ve known since he was a young boy – his mother assistant directed me in the West End in Me and My Girl when I was starting out.

“He rang and said ‘would you like to do this next year?’. I hadn’t even been contemplating it but how many opportunities are you going to get to be in something as iconic as The Mousetrap in its 60th year?

“It’s something to tick off. I don’t have a list of things I want to do but there are some that after you’ve done them, you realise you’ve ticked a box.”

Karl says the acting profession has treated him very well, but what would he have done if it hadn’t worked out?

“I wanted to be a journalist,” he says.

“That’s what I would have liked to do if I hadn’t gone into acting. I like being on The Matthew Wright Show on Channel Five, where you give your comments on issues of the day. I’m very interested iin politics and how the world works. I even watch some parliamentary sessions!

“I was absolutely enthralled by the Leveson Inquiry. Parts of it were better than any thriller I’ve ever seen.”

  • The Mousetrap is at The Mayflower, Southampton, from November 5 to 10.