RIVER City star Stephen Purdon is walking with great difficulty these days.

RIVER City star Stephen Purdon is walking with great difficulty these days.

But the actor who plays Shellsuit Bob in the TV series is convinced he'll be taking proper steps any day now.

"I'm sure I'll get the hang of this soon," he says, laughing - yet looking rather worried.

"I'll just have to keep practising."

Stephen is more than a little unsure on his feet at the moment thanks to the fact he's walking on stilts.

Today he's been attending Circus School at the Glasgow Science centre.

And he explained why he has to learn to balance on two wooden poles five feet above ground level.

"I'm back at the Pavilion panto this year," he says with The Wizard of Never Woz.

"And I play the Scarecrow, or rather Strawsuit Bob. There's a fantasy sequence in the show where I'm shrunk, which is created with special effects. But then I'm expanded.

"For that I have to look ten foot tall. And that's where the stilts come in."

Stephen, who stars alongside Dean Park, Joyce Falconer and Des McLean, has discovered that stiltwalking is much tougher than it looks.

"It looks easy when you see circus performers do it, but I'm finding it really hard.

"I started with the little stilts where you're about a foot off the ground and that was okay.

"But as soon as you're up there and you're dependent upon two little thin pieces of wood it all gets a bit scary.

"However, I'm going to keep practising, and I'm sure by the end of panto rehearsals I'll be stiltwalking with the best of them."