COMIC Ted Robbins is appearing before TV cameras for the first time since his on-stage heart attack during the Phoenix Nights live show in Manchester – and he couldn’t be happier.

Filming has just begun for the fifth series of Mount Pleasant, the Sky Living comedy in which he will play Uncle Terry, brother of fellow funnyman Bobby Ball’s character Barry.

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He will be appearing alongside former Coronation Street star Sally Lindsay, Samantha Womack and Nigel Harman.

And after three months recuperating, the comedian feels the time is right to return.

“It’s my first big job since my little fall and it has been great. I met up with Bobby Ball recently and had to tell him about my operation,” said the 59-year-old, who lives in Crawshawbooth with wife Judy.

“I’m very lucky to be able to do this stuff really. When you go through something like this it makes you sit back and think a little.”

Later on this year he will filming with children’s TV favourites Dick and Dom, as part of their CBBC series Diddy Movies, in which he will play film mogul Harvey J Weinsteinberger III.

Ted is still regularly stopped in the street by viewers in their late teens and early 20s who recall his BBC children’s series The Slammer with fondness.

He also claimed, tongue-in-cheek, that he was pioneering the talent show format made famous by Britain’s Got Talent years before Simon Cowell cottoned on.

“It’s like with Phoenix Nights, you can’t just assume that everyone knows all about it, and it will still be fresh for certain fans, in the same way that The Slammer is still popular with 18 and 20-year-olds now,” he added.

His Sunday show on Radio Lancashire is still keeping Den Perry’s alter-ego ticking over but he’s dropping his regular panto slot at the Charter Theatre in Preston to spend spend Christmas at home with the family.