WHEN Radio Four's Dead Ringers came calling, Phil Cool said: "No thank you" and, despite the subsequent success of the impressionist series, he feels he made the right decision.

Indeed, it's probably true that the Chorley-born comic has an elastic face that probably wasn't made for radio.

Still the only impressionist to have had his own, entirely solo telly show -- and certainly the only comic who can contort his face into a convincing imitation of a Volkswagen Beetle -- Phil, 56, reached the height of cool during the '80s when his face appeared on the credits of Grange Hill and in The Beano.

Now Phil's bringing his satirical stand-up and startling impressions to the Darwen Library Theatre on October 7.

He said: "My act has changed a bit in recent years and I'm now doing a lot more on old people.

"I can speak with authority on the subject now. I was doing a world cruise recently where the average age of the passengers was about 98. I think the last impressions they'd heard were Rudolph Valentino and Boris Karloff, so I don't think they quite got where mine were coming from."

Phil's also looking forward to making a return to a theatre he's become quite fond of.

"The theatre at Darwen is absolutely lovely," he said.

"I was really surprised the first time I went there -- I was expecting it to be a bit dingy -- but the auditorium is a dream."

Phil began life as an apprentice electrician in Chorley, where he entertained the workmen during the tea-break by doing impressions of his boss and celebrities like John Wayne and Mick Jagger.

From there he moved on to the pub circuit and was eventually picked up by TV.

After doing shows with Chris Tarrant and Spitting Image, he moved on to the BBC and his series Cool It was transmitted in 1985.

He said: "After that, my face was everywhere. It turned up on the credits of Grange Hill, which gave me a bit of a shock, and I also appeared in The Beano as Phil Cruel in a Minnie The Minx cartoon."

Since then he has turned more towards theatrical work, although he was offered a stint in the ensemble impressionist series Dead Ringers.

"I don't regret turning them down," he said. "I watch these programmes with Alastair McGowan and Jon Culshaw and, while I think they're very good, the programmes don't do it for me.

"There's too much make-up involved trying to get them to look like the people they're imitating and even then, they don't really resemble them.

"I think impressionism comes into its own in the theatre. There's no make-up or anything -- I just transform into these people right before the audience's eyes."

Phil Cool appears at the Darwen Library Theatre on Thursday, October 7.