IT'S NOT quite 10 am and Gregor Fisher is already talking about a near-death experience, the Scottish don't get above your station' syndrome - and the possibility his wife may kill him with a sharp knife.

IT'S NOT quite 10 am and Gregor Fisher is already talking about a near-death experience, the Scottish don't get above your station' syndrome - and the possibility his wife may kill him with a sharp knife.

Yes, the 54 year-old is in full voice and decidedly upbeat, despite it being almost the middle of the night in actor hours.

"I was up early this morning," he explains of the breakfast meeting.

"I stayed at Billy Boyd's last night. And Billy made sausages this morning so I had to have some. So I'll no' have a full breakfast."

Gregor, who now lives in Dumfriesshire, stayed with his co-star and family because he is in Glasgow to talk about Empty, his sitcom featuring Jackie and Tony, who clear out houses and offices. The series started on BBC2 last night.

Gregor's character, Jackie, is an unfulfilled creature, an intelligent man who finds himself in a job he is not suited for.

"He suffers from that west of Scotland thing that tells us not to get too big for our boots," says Gregor.

"And we all suffered from it. Even my wee mother, bless her sainted memory, would look at me whenever I bought a car that was a bit too flash (he once owned a Roller) or I'd go to a hotel for breakfast, and she would say, You're just showing off.' "Scotland doesn't encourage people to move out of their comfort zone."

Gregor admits he could have also became immobilised by fear. The former Rab C Nesbitt may be as sharp as Ella Cotter's nails, but he left Barrhead High with just one O'Level. (In Still Life, Plant Drawing and Embroidery) Was this about not showing off he was bright?

"I don't know," he says, smiling.

"I was maybe just a bit lazy. Or maybe even a bit thick. But Barrhead High was not a school that produced a lot of people with O'Levels.

"You were streamed in those days and after the 11 Plus exam I was one of the uninterested. I remember thinking the 11 Plus was a big deal, but sure they would really be desperate to have the likes of me at Paisley Grammar.

"And I didn't like the rejection.

I still don't. If someone says No!' when you're up for a television award or whatever, you think How can they possibly say no'.

"So I regret not having mucked in. I'd never have been First Class Honours at Cambridge but it would have been the sensible thing to do."

He muses for a moment, before adding: "Then again, where would have a degree taken me?

"I'm in the business that is nothing to do with paper qualifications. It is instinctive and creative and observational. Yet, it was sheer luck on my part I became an actor. Drama school, in those days, didn't demand qualifications."

An old school pal, David Bannerman, recalls Gregor "was a natural actor". He remembers seeing Gregor in a school production of The Mikado, where he was "brilliant" - and funny, because he couldn't resist bringing a couple of Glasgow asides to his part.

"Yes, I remember that," says Gregor. "One teacher, Mr Ball, threw a copy of The Mikado at me and said Learn that, Fisher. You're playing that part'.

Oh, Sir! I don't do that Learn it!' Sir! A'm no doing that ' Learn it!' "And I did. But I was concerned about how I would be perceived by my school pals. However, I did the show and I really enjoyed it. And I suppose I found a place where I was comfortable."

Gregor admits he was never comfortable in a gym, or on a football pitch, or in a classroom.

"I liked going behind the bike shed with the smokers. But on stage I found somewhere I belonged."

Yet, Gregor never thought he would make a living at it.

"When I grew up it was all Get a trade or you'll end up in the streets!' "I suppose the belief for me came about when someone said to me You can come to the prestigious Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama'. That was the endorsement.

"That was me being taken into the Kingdom of Heaven and shown how to transform from this little fat, Glasgow bachle into some towering Shakespearean thespian."

He adds, laughing: "How wrong was I?"

Not wrong. Rab C was described by some writers as Shakespearean. And Gregor has shown he can handle drama as easy as comedy, although laughs come easily.

And in conversation he is funny, even when talking about death.

"When I was eight I came close.

I was out adventuring with a couple of pals, the Fox brothers, and I fell down a sewer into this massive concrete box thing that had enough sewage at the bottom to drown me.

"The walls were sheer so I could not get out. My fingers were bleeding from trying to claw on to the edges.

"I thought I was a goner. It was nearly the end of Mr Fisher."

He adds grinning: "And what a stinking way to go."

The Fox brothers ran to a local laundry and yelled out that their pal was drowning. Two men rushed to the sewer with a ladder.

"One man, I think his name was Granger, must have been full of adrenalin because he held a ladder against the wall of the sewer while the other climbed down it and yanked this wee boy upward.

"I remember a really funny bit about the sewer story though. When I got out of the hospital having had my stomach pumped, a journalist turned up to take my picture. And my wee mum, all 4ft 9in of her, jumped in front of me, put her hand out in front of her and said No publicity, please!'"

Perhaps she had a sense her son would one day become a famous actor.

Regardless, Gregor has gone on to have a great career.

And he seems to be working harder than ever.

"Well, so often I would say No' to things. But in the past year I've worked solidly, in musical theatre with Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, then working on Oliver Twist, then with Empty."

Gregor's wife Vicky Burton has recently announced her plans to return to acting, now that their three kids have flown the nest to uni.

"Yes, Mrs Fisher, splendid actress that she is, is going back into the business. And as there are not a lot of theatres in the hills where we live, we're moving south."

By south' Gregor means Lincolnshire. He has found his dream village in Stamford, a semi-rural little town with an easy train ride to London should the pair go off to auditions.

But would the husband and wife team not consider working together?

"No," says Gregor, laughing.

"We'd end up stabbing each other. I couldn't work with the wife. And she couldn't work with me.

"We did a Nesbitt once, where she played a French councillor. And she never stabbed me, but it was all a bit too close."

• Empty, BBC2, Thursdays, 10pm.