DURING the past five years, Gregor Fisher has been as scarce as cod, having hardly made a splash in the entertainment world.

Yes, the actor appeared in the Nesbitt specials, but the screen’s Rab C has in fact most of his time in his house in rural France, doing whatever actors do in rural France.

Now however, like the once-threatened North Sea fish, Fisher is back. In fact, he’s everywhere. A few months ago he surprised fans – and perhaps himself – when he agreed to appear with the National Theatre of Scotland farce Yer Granny, playing a mute, one-woman eating machine.

In recent weeks, he’s been filming the new version of Scots film classic, Whisky Galore, starring alongside Eddie Izzard.

Meantime, he’s also been telling the story of his life to writer Melanie Reid, and his autobiography The Boy From Nowhere is now released.

There’s also a BBC Scotland documentary coming out soon about his life and very mixed times.

But that’s not the end of it. The actor is in Glasgow to talk about being back in panto, for the first time in over 30 years, set to star at the Kings Theatre in Snow White. (No, he’s playing the Huntsman).

What is this career renaissance all about, Gregor? Did life in Provence or where ever French idyll he found for himself and wife Vicky, become so cosy and warm he had to step out into the rain again to find out what it was like to be wet?

Had the three kids at uni gobbled up all the pie he’d made during his 25 year stint as Rab, and in films such as White Mischief and Merchant of Venice?

“Listen, we all work for money,” he says, grinning. “It’s very nice to get a cheque at the end of it. Yet, if you’re not committed to the work, to having a laugh, and giving the audience value for money, you may as well not turn up.”

He adds, in serious note; “I’ve done quite a lot of jobs in my time for money and they’ve usually been rotten.” Such as?

“I once got a very large cheque from ITV one time for a show called the Baldy Man, and it was a stinker. And I knew it was rotten from the start. And that’s the way the show turned out.

“Having said that, there was no way I did Yer Granny for the dosh. There wis nae dosh. And Whisky Galore is a low budget film. Again that wasn’t about money.”

Gregor adds; “I’ve been offered panto down the years, but usually after I’ve finished something, like a long stint on telly.

“And I never felt the energy. I just wanted to spend time with my family, go out and enjoy my ill-gotten gains, whatever.”

So the return to the stage is about feeding at the table of creativity? Partly. Critics may have seen (many) flaws in Yer Granny. But Gregor saw audiences give the show standing ovations in the likes of Inverness and Belfast.

It reminded him how seductive the combination of applause and laughter can be. And he also loved being part of the touring family.

‘Family’ has been a word uppermost in Gregor’s mind in recent years. Perhaps his sense of getting back to a theatre family has come about from working on his biography.

It certainly reveals a harrowing tale; (His publishers wanted to call it Nobody’s Child.) Gregor was adopted twice. His natural mother Kit McKenzie from Clackmannanshire had an illegitimate child with her first partner, who ran off to Australia.

Glasgow Times:

Kit then had a second affair with a married customs office and local councillor, William B Kerr, (who was old enough to be her father) with whom she had Gregor’s sister Maureen and then Gregor. But Kit died and natural father signed them over for adoption to the Fishers. Then his adoptive mother died in a house fire accident and he was re-adopted into the Leckie family.

Gregor considered Cis Leckie to be his mother, adoring the women who in spite of being in her fifties when she took him on, found the time to treat him as her own.

Along the way, he discovered his extended family, which included a brother who once worked as a journalist and arts critic for the Glasgow Herald.

Glasgow Times:

For years, Gregor knew he had a darker past than most. But chose not to ‘poke a stick at it’. But as the years passed, (and confidence grew?) he poked until he found the answers.

“It’s not a tale of misery,” he says smiling of his early life. “It’s not Angela’s Ashes.”

But it’s made him the reticent, considered, defensive character he is.

What can we look forward to in the documentary?

“How would I know,” he says laughing. “It will be what it is.”

At least he’s active now, in constant demand as an actor. In fact, at the moment he’s hotter than July in France.

“Yes, but next July could be colder than Anchorage in winter.”

Does he have work lined up for next years?

“I think I’ll be going to a rest home after this,” he says, laughing, and he may have been talking about the panto run, or perhaps the interview.

Snow White,  the King's Theatre, December 4-31