Comic actor Ricky Tomlinson has revealed that his next literary effort will be a collection of children's adventure stories. The Royle Family star explained to whatsontv.co.uk that he's been kicking the idea around for quite a few years, but recently his two-and-a-half year old grandson Louis has inspired him. And you wouldn't bet against it being a bestseller. His autobiography Ricky has now sold more than 600,000 copies. "I've had this in my mind for 5-10 years but I need to find an illustrator who's of the same wave as myself. I work in fits and starts and I've tried a couple of stories out on Louis and he absolutely loves them," said Ricky. "I tell him stories now and my wife looks at me as if to say you soft old sod, telling him stories like that - he's two and a half, not 14. But you can do anything in an adventure story, can't you? He loves it, absolutely loves it. When he's getting a bit tired, he climbs on my knee and says Grandad tell me a story and that's it, we have an hour of story-telling." Ricky says the stories are a collection of improvisations, lies and exaggerations. "They're stories I make up on the spot. If it's raining I tell him stories about the rain; if there are birds in the garden I'll tell him stories about the birds; we have a couple of football pitches nearby and if there's a game on I'll tell him a story about football. It's just whatever catches his imagination. I just embellish and exaggerate and he loves it." Ricky doesn't know when the book will be ready, but as he's got a quadruple bypass operation scheduled in late October, the four-month recuperation period will give him plenty of time to work on it. "My wife really wants me to have it because apparently after you've had this operation done you're like a new man and she said she could do with a new man," he quipped. The more serious problem was discovered after he went in for a routine angioplasty in September. "When I went in I said to a nurse, I said, 'Can I have a kiss?' and she said, 'Don't be bloody stupid - I shouldn't even be in bed with you really'." So at least the funny bone's fully intact.
