This Is Your Life article

Michael Aspel says it is time he had some fun after years in showbiz.

Television's Mr Cool, super-smooth Michael Aspel, is in need of a laugh.

The 63-year-old has been on our screens since the Fifties, when he switched from radio acting to news-reading.

But now, he says, it's time he had some fun.

"I want to do something more light-hearted," he reveals. "I want to get back into live television, television that is dangerous - the kind of show where I open my mouth and see what happens!"

Aspel has been hosting This Is Your Life since the death of Eamonn Andrews nine years ago and is about to present a new series of Strange But True? this Friday.

But he hints that it is time for a change.

"Nothing is written in stone," he says enigmatically.

The three times married father-of-six split dramatically from his actress wife Liz Power last year and he still shies away from talking about his complex personal life.

BUT the couple were spotted on holiday together with their children earlier this summer in Italy, where Aspel owns a holiday home.

He says: "We go there every year and take the boys - and we will until they get bored, which might be quite soon."

At the moment, though, it looks as though it is Aspel himself who is bored with being simply a front man. A high-profile film series Lights, Camera, Action! last year left him disappointed.

Aspel hoped he would be doing interviews with top Hollywood stars - but they were conducted by someone else.

He says: "I would like to do another chat show, but it would have to be very different from the kind of things that have been done in the past."

"I would want to get into the audience more and get reaction."

"But not the kind of show like Man-O-Man! That is definitely not for me!"