ROBERT Carlyle still holds boxing legend Benny Lynch as close to his heart as a struggling fighter grabs an opponent.

The actor, set to film Trainspotting 2 in Scotland, spoke of the boxer when he appeared at a fund-raising event in the beer garden of Glasgow’s Clutha Vaults.

And Robert explained why a statute of Benny Lynch has to be constructed.

“I’ve known about Benny Lynch since he was a wee boy,” he says, “My grandfather saw him box and this legend was with me as a wee boy. And later, his rags-to-riches story really hit home.”

Lynch, says the star of the Full Monty and TV fantasy Once Upon A Time, sums up the Glasgow character, the triumph-over-adversity tale?

“Yes, I started life with less than nothing, in the gutter, and anyone who has climbed out of it in any way, has my respect.”

Carlyle’s dad, Joseph, was painter and decorator, a single father who’s wife left when little Bobby was four.

The pair travelled constantly in search of work, of a life. At one time they lived in a commune in Brighton. Carlyle never saw his mother again, nor did he wish to. His late dad was his parents.

Back in Glasgow, the sixteen year-old Bobby left school and also became a painter and decorator. He reveals when the light of acting possibility appeared, and it wasn’t from role models. There were none.

“Because of what had happened with my dad and mother, in the late sixties my dad would take me to cinema, to forget about what had happened, to forget about the sh*** in our lives, to forget where we were living.

“In those days, you could sit through the same film all day long, and we’d do that watching cowboy films over and over again.

“We’d be there four or five times a week. The kernel of an idea must have stayed with me, even though I was in my early twenties before I started to act.”

Yet when he was coaxed along to Washington Street Arts, Robert couldn’t admit to himself acting was a real job.

“I couldn’t even tell my dad about the acting idea,” he says. “It wasn’t until years later, when I was accepted for drama school.”

At Glasgow’s RSAMD, Robert didn’t fit in. “Acting still didn’t seem right. It wasn’t a real job. My da’ had a real job.

“There was about twenty of us in the year but most of the students were from down south and I didn’t know how to deal with all of this. They were middle class. I couldn’t come to grips with it.”

He reveals he actually walked out of the RSAMD at Christmas time. He’d had enough.

“The principal, Ted Argent, phoned me up and asked me if I was coming back. I said ‘Naw.’ He said ‘Well, at least come in and talk about it. ‘Naw.’ He called again. Same answer. He called about four or five times in a two week period. To get him off my back I went in to talk to him and I was persuaded.”

He adds; “My deal for coming back was I didn’t have to speak middle class English and Ted Argent agreed.” He adds, “I guess he felt there was something in me that was worth persevering with.”

The principal called it right, with Robert going on to star in a range of TV such as Cracker films such as The World Is Not Enough and soon, Trainspotting 2.

He reveals he could even resurrect his psycho character Begbie for a third time.

Writer Irvine Welsh has brought back his favourite psycho in new novel The Blade Artist, which is a dead cert to be turned into a movie.

But Robert Carlyle is also keen to come back to the Scottish stage.

“I directed Macbeth twice, back in the day. One of my favourite Scottish actresses is Laura Fraser. I’ve never met her but I have this notion that myself and Laura Fraser could appear in Macbeth. If the National Theatre of Scotland is listening . . .”

At 55, Carlyle will never play Lynch, but he is mad keen on the idea of directing a movie of the boxer’s life.

Because Lynch is Glasgow? Because Bobby Carlyle is Glasgow. “I think so,” he says smiling in agreement.

“I could live anywhere. I live here because I want to. Because I feel part of this city. As did Benny.”