Just don't buy a Ferrari or blow your money on sex and drugs LIKE I

0 Comments | Sunday Mirror, Mar 30, 2008 | by ADAM LEE-POTTER

MARK Lester is barely recognisable as the cherubic young orphan who lit up the movie screen as Oliver Twist 40 years ago.

The blond moptop has darkened and is starting to thin, an ever- so-faint pot belly strains at his waistband and he's long since swapped Hollywood swank for Gloucestershire osteopathy.

But look hard enough and the old blue-eyed twinkle and cheeky smile are still there. So too the impeccable vowels that once pleaded so sweetly: "Please sir, can I have some more?"

Mark, now 49, was one of our firstever child stars. When he was eight he was earning a then-enormous pounds 100 a week - almost as much as George Best and as much as grown-up actors Oliver Reed and Sir John Mills.

Acclaim for Oliver! was followed by roles in films like Run Wild, Run Free and Black Beauty. All the while he was being given just 25p a week in pocket money. But when he turned 18 he was handed a cheque for pounds 70,000. And he promptly blew the lot on a brand-new Ferrari, cocaine and fast women.

Two years later, he was washed-up - the money gone, the jobs dried up.

But now he's reliving the highs and lows of Oliver! all over again as he tunes in to Andrew Lloyd Webber's new BBC1 talent show I'd Do Anything.

Lloyd Webber and host Graham Norton hope to find a new Oliver from a score of hopefuls for a West End revival of the musical. But Mark, still the most famous-ever Oliver - won't be taking part.

"Hell, no," he says. "I hate reality television shows. I think they're cruel and a bit rubbish. I feel so sorry for all the rejects.

"I have watched it, partly because of nostalgia but mostly because my wife is a fan.

"When I saw all the would-be Nancys, I couldn't believe it.

They're all so plain."

His old co-star Shani Wallis, who played Nancy in the film, has complained bitterly that Lloyd Webber didn't ask her to be one of his TV judges. But Mark couldn't care less.

"Andrew hasn't rung me, but why should he?

I would hate to be a judge - I'd be hopeless.

I'm a resting actor, not a talent scout, director or coach."

When the Hollywood money finally ran out, Mark checked into rehab and, aged 28, retrained as an osteopath.

"Showbiz is a fickle business.

Yes, I was used-up and thrown on the scrapheap at 20 - but I still had a marvellous 16-year career.

"I starred in my first film when I was just four.

"Acting is rather like being a pop star. Unless you're Tom Cruise or Rolling Stones, very few in the business have a career for life.

My burst of fame was just a bonus.

And I'd honestly far rather be an osteopath than a movie star. I get top people now, instead of just mildly musing them for a couple of hours.

And the groupies did get incredibly tedious after a while."

Mark, who lives in Cheltenhamh his second wife Lisa, 35, and his four children, drives a battered old 4x4 and works nine-to-five days. "But I don't have regrets - what's the point?," he says.

"I blew all my money on drink, cocaine, fast cars and women. For Oliver! I was paid a flat fee of pounds 100 a week, but back then that was the kind of money footballers got which wasn't bad for an eight-year-old boy.

"Sure, I took drugs and had a wild time. Cocaine just seemed the norm back then. But I've been clean for 25 years. I realised I had to stop when I needed an operation on my sinuses to save my nose.

"Now I spend all my money on sending my children to private school and my only vice is the occasional glass of Sauvignon Blanc. And I'm much happier. I still think Oliver! is a cracking movie. My children love it, too. I last sat down to watch it a couple of years ago.

I certainly didn't cringe and I ended up forgetting it was me up there on the screen. I just enjoyed it as a regular film."

His life post-Hollywood has not proved plain sailing.

His 12-year marriage to Jane, the mother of his children, ended bitterly five years ago after she walked out. He says: "I don't talk to my first wife. The children live with me and my second wife Lisa. She is a psychiatric nurse and that keeps a man on his toes, I can tell you.

"The divorce was incredibly acrimonious. But it had nothing to do with fame, its aftermath or the drugs.

We would have split up come what may. The children are OK, that's the important thing."

Today, the only reminder of Mark's former life is his enduring friendship with singer Michael Jackson.

Mark even offered to stick up for Jackson at his trial after his pal was charged with alleged child abuse.

"Michael is one of my best friends. I talked to him just a couple of days ago. I've stayed at Neverland countless times. We met more than 30 years ago when he was on tour here with the Jackson Five. His agent rang me up and said: 'Michael's favourite film is Oliver! He'd love to meet you.' "We went for a coffee and we've been pals ever since. I'm just so proud of him He's managed to turn his life around after all the claims and he's just trying to get by.

"We have so much in common. We were both thrust into the spotlight at a very early age. If you haven't experienced that, it's impossible to fully understand."