Patrick Swayze’s are hard shoes to fill, but Andy Moss had a winning card hidden up his sleeve for Ghost The Musical – he used to be the lead singer in a band.

Using all his live singing experience as he belts out the fantastic numbers night after night, eight shows a week, Andy is relieved that all those years touring around Europe are finally paying off.

“It’s the role of a lifetime,” the former Hollyoaks actor tells me. "To be singing, dancing and acting in a show of this calibre is just a dream come true because it’s such an iconic role.

“And it’s good to be playing the nice guy for a change, although Sam was a banker so he can’t have been that nice,” he laughs.

“But sometimes I feel like I’m playing four different parts because Sam is such a complex character, that there is his emotional side, the comic interaction, the singing and dancing, plus the action/thriller moments, all bundled into one, which for an actor is a wonderful challenge. It’s such an interesting part.

“And it’s been the first time since Hollyoaks that something has really lit my fire. So I’m back in the room.”

Andy won a part in hairdressing comedy Cutting It straight out of acting college, and then played loveable rogue Rhys Ashworth for eight years on Hollyoaks, so found it hard facing civvy street afterwards.

“I needed to grow up really. I think I was still trapped as a teenager because I’d been acting all hours of the day on Hollyoaks. So I went travelling for a bit, came back and did some TV, which I enjoyed but it didn’t fulfil me really, and then Ghost The Musical came up which has really ticked all the boxes.”

Not that the show has gone without a hitch, his co-star Sarah Harding, who plays Molly, losing her voice for the first month of the tour, and then being taken off halfway through the show in Blackpool, which she later blamed on the medication she was taking.

“Sarah has never done anything like this before but she is a sweet girl and as long as she knows her stuff and gives it her all, I will help and support her wherever possible,” Andy says diplomatically.

“Because we have really bonded and despite everything that happened in the beginning, all the negative stuff, it doesn’t affect us now because we have really hit our stride and are back on track.

“And that’s part of the job – people do get ill and you adapt. You have to be ready for anything. And after 15 years in the business I am and support Sarah fully.”

So tell me about the band he was in? “Oh we were called Hiatus, which changed to Empire, and we were quite good. We went on tour with Wheatus (Teenage Dirt Bag Baby) around Europe and I kept that going through college and Cutting It.

"But when Hollyoaks came up, I was at a crossroads because it’s a 24/7 job, and I chose acting. I made the right the decision though because the band didn’t make it, and while being a rock star might seem glamorous, it doesn’t pay the bills. Funny though that here I am 12 years on and using all those skills again.”

Even so, isn’t it sacrilegious to mess with a classic film like Ghost? “No, because the music was written by Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics, and Bruce Joel Rubin who wrote the script has approved it all, and allowed his words to be used as lyrics in the songs."

Having only been to Oxford once before for a quick cup of tea with his mum, the 32 year-old is also really excited about spending next week here and hopes everyone loves the show.

"Judging by the audience’s responses, who have given us standing ovations, we must be doing something right.

“But as I’m on stage for about two hours and playing such an enormously emotional part, I am utterly wrung out afterwards, so it is knackering, but all in a good way.”