IT MUST be nice to forever have the word "heart-throb" attached to your name.

But, as I learn from London's Burning star Glen Murphy, who suffers from this very labelling, it's not the sort of thing one's wife will let one get too attached to.

"There's no way my wife would ever let me develop any sort of an ego about that! She's quick to put me back on the ground," he laughs.

"It's weird isn't it, though? What's it all about? I'm 47 years of age, a stone-and-a-half overweight and have four kids. I was the London's Burning heart-throb though because they were a pretty ugly bunch! I love 'em dearly, but they were really ugly!"

Having played a fireman in said show for the entire duration of its impressive run - 17 years - on ITV, Glen (pictured) is now back on stage, where it all began for him as an actor.

He's coming to the Haymarket theatre with Francis Durbridge's The Gentle Hook, and maintains that he can't wait to get up there.

"Theatre is the actor's medium," he says, "and these national tours are wonderful. There's such a lovely crew, thank God. There's not one person in the cast who's not great.

"George Sewell, Gareth Hunt and I - they call us The Three Gs - have bonded. One of George's best friends even introduced my mum and dad to each other!"

An East End lad who still supports his beloved West Ham, Glen fell into acting in a very "East End" fashion, being plucked from his career as a professional boxer to star in a local theatre group's production. And he never looked back.

"They wanted some boxers for a play," he recalls. "They came down to the club to pick out the two good-looking ones. Obviously they couldn't make it, so I was chosen!

"It was a strange way to get in then, as you had to have gone to drama school and all that.

"So I ended up working at the theatre for about three years. After I was boxing all day, I'd go to the theatre, open up, do a walk on, tidy up and go home. I thought 'This is handy'.

"For my first professional fight I was offered £300 a week, of which I'd have got about £135. At the same time, I was offered an audition for Victor/Victoria, which was in The Stage newspaper, to be a boxer in the film.

"I went along and got that and thought 'Wow'. It was about £200 a day for three days, limos picking me up, Pinewood studios, movie stars and getting £600 to pretend to be a boxer, or get £135 to get my brains smashed out!"

Did anyone in his family think he was rejecting his roots by taking to the stage?

"Not at all. My dad was a former British boxing champion, but he never wanted me to box at all, saying it was a mug's game, and the whole family agreed.

"I did a few of those boxing roles and then I thought I'd better start getting a bit of train-ing. I did a few years' solid theatre, honing my craft and then came TV. I did Shine on Harvey Moon, which was a really big series at the time, and then Dr Who and some physical roles, but the parts just kept getting bigger."

And then came London's Burning, which he joined in 1987, never leaving until the series was cancelled in 2002.

"We were booked for one series at a time. I think there was only once or twice in the whole run that they said 'We're definitely going next year'. There were never any guarantees.

"I was very proud of the series but, in the last couple of years, it went a bit wrong. I was ready to jump before the end of it. I didn't like where it was going - in the last series they seemed like they wanted to kill it off. It just got silly where before it had been gritty and realistic.

"I don't think any drama series will run as long as that ever again as TV is so poor at the moment. I've been offered scripts but they've been garbage, really badly written. Whereas, when I read the script for this play, I thought it was brilliant."

A very popular murder mystery play from the expert pen of Durbridge, it's sure to be an audience winner.

And as for what he's doing with the rest of his time, Glen is producing a panto this year, as well as keeping up with his work as the patron of several charities, including Supp-ortline.

"I willingly pitch in, having four kids my-self. Smaller charities sometimes get barged out of the way by the more glamorous ones, so I like to help them out along the way."

Glen Murphy will star in The Gentle Hook at the Haymarket Theatre from November 22 to 27. Tickets, priced from £8.50, are available from the box office on 0870 770 1088.