Ricky Tomlinson says being jailed cost him £1 million and left grim phobia

Fans of The Royle Family will remember him as couch potato patriarch, Jim. In contrast, the real life Ricky Tomlinson is a go-getter who, aged 87, sees age as no barrier to fighting for what’s right. He is currently making a documentary with ex-Brookside Colin McKeown, to expose the wrongs of the two year prison sentence he served for his role as a "flying picket" during the UK's first national Building Workers' Strike in 1972 - a conviction which was later overturned. His harrowing jail time, he claims, has cost him £1 million, as it left him with a lifelong phobia of cockroaches. Among other things, this means he’s turned down lucrative offers to go in the I’m a Celebrity jungle. Recalling one grim night in his cell, he says: “I got up at 4am and saw the floor moving. It was eight inches deep in cockroaches. "The cockroaches were up the walls, on the ceiling and on the windows. “Unfortunately, I have got a thing about it, and I have got to have treatment now. I can't shake it off. I used to have a beautiful house in Spain, but once we saw a couple of cockroaches and I sold it the next month. Rita, my wife, told me to get therapy. "It has cost me about £1m. Every year I get asked to go in the [I'm A Celebrity] jungle. I have been asked a dozen times and I have to turn it down because of that. It has cost me a fortune." A former plasterer, Ricky was one of 24 trade unionists, known as the Shrewsbury 24, who were prosecuted for picketing during the strike. He and fellow activist Des Warren, dubbed the Shrewsbury Two, were singled out to face more serious charges, with Ricky being accused of stirring up action as a union shop steward while working on the A483 bypass build in Wrexham, North Wales. Convicted of conspiracy to intimidate and affray, he was jailed in 1973 - waiting until March 2021 to have his convictions overturned by the Court of Appeal. Speaking at a fundraiser for the Chickenshed Theatre children’s charity, Ricky - who went on hunger strike for 31 days in prison, until he was coaxed out of it by a prison visitor - says, with Colin McKeown’s help, he will be making a film that “names names.” He says: "Colin was the brains behind Brookside and Hollyoaks. He is a working class lad and knows all about the case. The trial was a farce. The police presence for six building workers in 1972 was the biggest there has ever been at any trial, and that includes The Krays and the Irish bombers." Ricky is also keen to see wrongs righted on the global stage. He says: "When I watch what is going on in the Middle East and there are kids getting blown up and they are starving hungry, I have tears in my eyes. I am a bit of a weeper. I think it is outrageous. “ Despite bearing scars from his prison ordeal, Ricky has never let it hold him back and quickly went into acting - appearing in the BBC Play For Today series in 1981 and landing the role of Bobby Grant in Channel 4’s Brookside the following year. Starring in 193 episodes, alongside onscreen wife Sheila, played by actress Sue Johnston, the pair became one of the most famous TV couples of the 1980s. And 10 years after Ricky's 1988 departure from Brookside Close, he was reunited with Sue Johnston in the BBC1 comedy, The Royle Family, written by the late comic Caroline Aherne and her writing partner Craig Cash. Ricky says: "I first met Caroline at a black tie do at Granada Television in Manchester. “We were on the way to the buffet and I bumped into a young girl in front of me. She went flying and fell on her back. She looked up and said ‘oh, you're my dad aren't you?’ I said to my wife Rita, ‘this girl has got mental health problems. She thinks I am her father’. "That night, when we got home, there was a message on my answerphone, saying ‘can you get to Granada for 9am?’ I got there the next day and Caroline was there, sitting with the rest of the cast. She said ‘I saw you last night. I want you to play my dad’". First broadcast in September 1998, the Royles were an instant hit. The show also featured Ralf Little as their hapless son Antony, while Aherne and Cash played dozy couple Denise and Dave. Looking back, Ricky believes late actress Liz Smith, who played the show's loveable nanna, Norma Speakman, was the real star of the show. He says: "She was a wonderful actress. She was my favourite character. I used to have a go at her all the time. We used to have our breakfast on set, but they put her up in a five star hotel next to the studio. She used to come in and would dive into our breakfast. I was like ‘Eh! You're staying in a five star hotel and you are pinching ours? You miserable old sod.’ "But she used to say ‘you are awful, you are’ and I used to say ‘no I am not. You are a greedy old cow’. But I loved her. She was absolutely fabulous." Describing Liz, who died in 2016, aged 95, he continues: "She was wonderful but bonkers. She once decided she wanted to buy a house and went past an estate agent in London. She went home, got the money and put it in a bloody big leather bag. "She went back to the house that was in the photo and knocked on the door and this man opened it. She said ‘I am buying the house’ and gave him the money. I said ‘are you bonkers?’ But she sorted it out and lived [there] happily ever after." The Royle Family regularly pulled in up to 9 million viewers a week, until its final episode on Christmas Day 2012. Ricky still laughs out loud remembering the raucous times he enjoyed on set. He says: "One day, Caroline asked me to come to the studio at 9am on a Saturday. She said there was a mistake. I asked what the lines were but she said ‘no. It is more than that'. So I got there and she played a scene of me sitting in my underpants and an old vest. She said ‘can you see the fault? Look closer. Your b******s are hanging out!’” Jim Royle’s famous catchphrase ‘my a***’ has also haunted the actor. He says: "Caroline came up with it. We were once walking past a school in Liverpool and there were 300 girls outside at playtime. As I walked past, all the girls, at the top of their voice, shouted ‘my a***!’. You could hear it in Chester. “ He has made the most of the catchphrase - using it in his current UK speaking tour, titled Retirement?! My Arse! True to his word, he has no plans to retire any time soon - especially not while his pal Andy Burnham is Prime Minister. He says: “I know Andy Burnham very, very well. He is as straight as a die. He is genuine and real. Andy is a good politician. He is straight forward. He is working class and loves the working class. I tell you what, he will do a good job in Number 10. I am happy to keep working. I would appear in EastEnders. I would appear in anything if the money is right, kid. I certainly will." *Tickets for Ricky Tomlinson's UK tour, "Retirement?! My Arse!", are available from www.whodaresgrins.com or www.ents24.com To support the work of Chickenshed Theatre children's charity visit www.chickenshed.org.uk