When eight year-old Eastender Tommy Steele was taken to see The Glenn Miller Orchestra at Leicester Square he couldn't believe his eyes. He watched in awe as the audience jived and jitterbugged their way through the entire show, including his parents, an experience he never forgot.

Afterwards the American star got on a plane to fly to Paris and was never seen again.

What happened to the celebrated US big band icon has remained a mystery until very recently. WW2 was in mid flow in 1944, so it was assumed Miller had been shot down. Then an Australian airman reported that jettison bombs had hit a plane, widely assumed to be that of Glenn Miller.

18 months ago, a team of engineers from America and the UK, historians, cartographers and pilots all got together, traced his flight path and realised Glen Miller’s death had in fact been caused by pilot error when the carburettor cut out causing the plane to dive into the sea.

Tommy Steele never forgot the story, and although he has tapped, sung and danced his way through a dazzling career in theatre, film and music, recently being awarded not just an OBE, but also a plaque outside The Palladium as its most successful star ever, it was always there in the background.

The 80 year-old therefore pricked up his ears when he heard Bill Kenwright was devising a musical about Glenn Miller. “When he asked me to play Miller I said ‘you can’t have me, I‘m an English pensioner’,” he laughs.

“But Ken said “you’re a song and dance man aren’t you and I need a song and dance man,” and that was that. I couldn’t argue could I because we already know how good the music and the story are. "

As for the performance side, Tommy's not getting any younger, so does it get harder? “You have to look after yourself of course and I dedicate myself to my performances so spend my days preparing for them, because you can’t have a high octane show if you’re not going to give a high octane performance.

“So it has to be the right kind of show to get me off the couch. There is no point putting a big show like this together just for a couple of weeks. You have to be in it for the long term.”

Even so, he must get tired? “It takes it out of you these big shows so I don’t really have time to get out and about. But Oxford is one of those places that makes such an impression that it never leaves you.”

Tommy loves Oxford and is delighted to be spending a week here, having filmed Half a Sixpence in the city centre in 1968.

“Half a Sixpence was a crash, bang, wallop of a musical and we spent a lot of time punting on the river,” he remembers. Did he fall in? “No, but my double did several times,” he guffaws.

He also lived in Woodstock and Thame while his daughter was eventing here back in the day.

“Oxfordshire does exactly what it says on the tin and I’ve come back many times to perform, because you are always looking for the next show so I ain’t fading away just yet,” he chuckles.

When does he know a show is going to be a success then? “When the curtain goes up. You can have everything in place but if Mr and Mrs Smith don’t like it, it won’t work.

"Luckily they keep turning up

“But then so do I. I’m a professional through and through. I can’t help myself.”

The Glenn Miller Story

Monday 29 August – Saturday 5 September Box Office: 0844 871 3020

Oxford, New Theatre Website: www.atgtickets.com