LIAM Dolan’s grandfather got it exactly right, the day he took the 12 year-old Liam along Borderline Youth Theatre and demanded; ‘This boy needs to be on the stage!’”

He was right on the money. The reality was Liam Dolan had to be on the stage. A life as a performer was mapped out, even before he was seven years-old and already doing impressions of showbiz stars.

From Borderline Youth Theatre, Liam, who was born in Drumchapel but grew up in Ayrshire, went on to become a children’s presenter on national television, a Red Coat, a cruise ship entertainer and a panto star.

Now, the all-round entertainer is set to move to the Pavilion Theatre in Glasgow, where he’s joining the cast of the Real Glesga Dance Mums.

It’s a fun part and he’s looking forward to playing the only man in the cast in this tale of dance school mothers, little divas and punctured dreams of stardom.

But first, Liam, a delightful throwback to the halcyon days of variety, rewinds on his colourful showbiz journey.

“After Bordeline Youth Theatre in 1995 I left school and auditioned for the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama when I was seventeen and didn’t get in,” he says.

“They told me to come back when I had some life experience, but I didn’t because the reality was I never stopped working from that moment on. I just didn’t have the time.”

Liam gained his Equity Card working as a touring actor with Borderline Theatre Company and landed his first panto in Glenrothes in his first year.

But he never regretted not being accepted by the RSAMD.

“I am an actor, but I don’t want to do Shakespeare at the Globe theatre in London,” Liam admits, grinning. “I want to do comedy acting at the Pavilion in Glasgow.”

But before reaching this point, Liam made several stops along the way.

In 2001, he entered a BBC talent competition and out of 14,000 entrants, gradually narrowed down over the months, the telly audience voted and Liam landed the presenter’s job with CBeebies in London.

“It was the most bizarre thing I’ve ever done,” he says of the audition process.

“I got through the initial stages and then had to wait from March to November. It was nerve wracking.”

And life changing. Liam moved to London, then from the BBC to ITV and working on GMTV Kids at the weekends, then onto the Disney Channel.

During the Disney stint he interviewed the major stars of the day, including Britney Spears. And he almost poisoned her.

“We did this sketch with her called Great Britney and the idea was I checked her out in what she knew about Britain, and she would taste our food.

“So we had a plate of fish and chips, a bowl of beetroot and a plate and mushy peas, and I asked what went with fish and chips.

“She got it right, so I said to her, ‘Would you like a chip?’ And as I said this I heard yelling in my earpiece from the producer ‘Don’t give her it! Don’t!’

“But it was too late. Britney eat the chip but what I hadn’t realised was the props department had bought the fish and chips five days before.”

Liam, who will also star in this year’s Pavilion panto Elfie’s Magical Adventure – as Elfie- adds, smiling, “It was just as well she didn’t have the fish.”

It wasn’t too much later the American star went off the rails and shaved her head.

“I promise you though, it had nothing to do with me and the chip.”

Two years ago, Liam moved to ITV’s This Morning, The Hub, but has now moved back to Scotland. But the reality was he’d never really left completely in the first place.

“I’d been coming up to do Kilmarnock panto for 12 years, and my own cabaret show,” he maintains.

And of course, he’s toured with comedy pal Johnny Mac in the recreation of classic comedy duo, Francie and Josie.

Yet, he’s way too young to be part of that world. How can Liam, at 38, even know of the Glasgow comedy duo of the late fifties and sixties.

“My granddad had a Francie and Josie LP, and I thought it was really funny,” he says, smiling. “Then we managed to get a video.

“Years later in 1997, Johnny Mac and I did a tribute to Francie and Josie to raise money for youth theatre.

“I wrote a letter to Rikki and asked if we would be allowed to do it. He said in a very nice return; ‘Thank you for asking permission. A lot of people don’t bother to do that. Please feel free to use my material, providing you credit the original writer.’

“And we do that, with the name on all our posters. Then, two years ago I was doing my own show in the Palace and I did the Francie and Josie tribute with Johnny and the manager said we should develop it into a full show.

“We did, and it sold out everywhere.”

Liam’s mannerisms are uncannily like that of the late Jack Milroy.

And without throwing any wild accusations in the direction of Liam’s mum, observers could well be forgiven for thinking Liam and Jack are so alike they could well have the same DNA.

“It’s funny you say that,” he says, laughing. “When I did panto with the comedian Jimmy Nair in 1995 he said to me ‘My god, son. Did your mum ever go see Francie and Josie back in the seventies?’

“I said ‘I don’t know. Why?’ And he said ‘You’re just the double of Jack Milroy. You’re speech patterns, the look, it’s Jack. You could be Jack!’ And he was right.”

Now, Liam is at the Pavilion with Dance Mums. Is it a world he knows anything of?

“Sort of,” he says. “My husband is a choreographer and he watches Dance Mums on television.

“And I have my own theatre school in Ayrshire so I’ve come across quite a lot of dance mums.”

It’s a lovely world to plunder comedy from.

“Yes, and there are some cracking characters and great lines in there,” he adds of his character, Cammy the Caretaker.

What does Cammy get up to? Does he offer a foil to the star-struck desperate mothers?

“Let’s just say he has an interesting back story, and there’s more to him than meets the eye,” says Liam, with a knowing grin.

• The Real Glasga Dance Mums, the Pavilion Theatre, October 5- 15.