RIVER City star Stephen Purdon is swapping the TV for the theatre to star Battle of the Bulge.

The comedy play features a group of ladies who are fighting to get fit and rescue their desperate lives in the process.

But the actor who plays Shellsuit Bob in the BBC soap admits he's something of a stranger to a tracksuit in real life.

"I did have a gym membership," says the 24-year-old, "but when I bought my new house the gym membership had to go.

"I didn't have the money for it, and to be honest the only time I was using it was when I had a hangover and I'd go to the sauna or the steam room.

"I don't really have the motivation for the gym. I can't be bothered with all of that. I get so bored training."

The actor, however, hasn't surrendered to a life of a sloth. He still plays five-a-side football every Monday and Thursday night at Glasgow Green and in Haghill.

"I love it with a passion," he says, "It's something I have to do every week. And it's not like training. You don't even know you're exercising when you play fives."

Of course, the Carntyne-born actor has to avoid accidents or Shell- suit Bob would have to explain a strange limp. But Stephen also admits to playing a more sedate sport.

He says: "I play a bit of golf. I started playing about four years ago during the time when the Open was on the telly. Me and my mate were sitting about bored one day when we decided to give it a go.

"So we got out there and I realised I loved it. I've now got a full set of clubs and I play whenever I can."

Stephen's next sporting challenge, he reveals, is tennis.

"I love watching it," he says. "I've got Sky and I'm always watching tennis matches from around the globe, from Los Angeles or wherever.

"And what about the Wimbledon final? That has to be the best tennis match ever. It was superb.

"My girlfriend Nicola had plans for us that day, but the plans went out the windae once the match ran on. I really wanted Nadal to win."

He adds: "I used to go to Scotstoun to play tennis with the school. But never really got much chance to play.

"My next challenge will be to have a go at tennis. I want to get into that."

But there is a problem looming on the horizon over Stephen's sporting life. He can't kick the smoking habit.

"I know I really should stop but I find it so hard," he admits.

"I once stopped for 16 weeks. But I started again, just before I did my first panto at the Pavilion.

"The stress of working on Jack and the Beanstalk - it was such an adventure for me and so much to learn - saw me going back on them.

"Now, I try to cut down. And I just buy 10 in the morning. But by six o' clock I'm buying another 10."

Stephen loved sport at school.

"My two main subjects were PE and English.

"I wasn't going to become a sporting star, but fancied being a journalist. I was really into writing stories."

But youth theatre took his interest... and the rest his history. Yet, his new stage role won't be the most physically demanding he'll have.

WHILE the likes of Nicola Park and Gwynyth Guthrie are pounding away on the treadmill, In Battle of the Bulge Stephen plays Davie The Janny.

It's his job to keep the gym clean and tidy. And along the way he gets to mop up the ladies worries and woes.

And throw in a lot of funny lines.

"I wear an overall rather than a tracksuit," he says. "That's the extent of my efforts.

"But I'm looking forward to getting into the theatre show. It's great to work at the Pavilion. And the cast are really good fun."

Stephen's summer break from TV ends on August 18 and then it's back to filming on River City.

And at the end of the year he'll be back at the Pavilion in The Wizard Of Oz.

"I'm really excited about it," says Stephen who will play the Scarecrow.

Now, that is a part that will call for a little more fitness.

"You're so right," he says, laughing. "Maybe I will try to stop smoking. Or at least play a bit more golf." Battle of the Bulge, the Pavilion, from today until August 16.