Best known as the loveable gardener Joe Mangle in Aussie soap Neighbours, Mark Little has reprised his role in the award-winning one-man play Defending The Caveman for a UK tour.

MATTHEW JENKIN talks to him about the comedy show, visiting The Orchard Theatre in Dartford this week, and why he still can't shake off the legacy of his most memorable character.

Q: What's Defending The Caveman about?

Mark Little: It's difficult to explain in 90 words or less because it takes me 90 minutes on the night. It's a comic thesis trying to explain men to women. It's looking at the concept that yes, men and women are equal, but that doesn't mean we're the same.

It looks at the differences between men and women and how important they are to the survival to the species.

It also looks at the sexes in a prehistoric context, of how cavemen and cavewomen went about things. They seem to have had it pretty sussed. They acknowledged each other's differences and worked together to create a stronger whole.

The whole concept of the play is the caveman has a bad reputation and I'm defending him. The facts are that the caveman worshipped women. A lot of the humour comes from relating prehistoric behaviour to modern behaviour and how similar it is. It's very clever.

Q: How has the show gone down with women? Do they enjoy it as much as the men?

ML: Women enjoy it just as much, if not more. They love it. It's really a show designed for men and women to enjoy together. It's wonderfully balanced and there's no offence to either sexes.

Women love it and they're the ones I have to get the St John Ambulance in to rescue from laughing too much.

Women are laughing at the fact this sort of behaviour seems to be a common thread between all blokes. It's about standing up for the ordinary bloke who tries to do the right thing. He's neither an intellectual or a pig. He's just the bloke in the middle.

Q: It's been a worldwide hit. How does it translate to other cultures?

ML: I've just been to Dubai with it and that had a lot of expats in the audience, as well as locals. These things seem to be happening in everybody's homes. It's quite amazing.

There are cavemen all over the world. It's a subject which seems to be close to everybody's heart. Every culture seems to understand it because it's based on basic human truths.

Q:How has it been received in your native Australia?

ML: They tried it with a couple of cavemen out there but it doesn't seem to have worked. The thing is, it's a very difficult thing for people to learn.

It's a really hard acting job and a couple of the Aussie cavemen have had nervous breakdowns trying to learn this thing.

So they haven't really done it properly there. I don't know if Australians are too much like cavemen to understand it. It's certainly one of the reasons I get away with it in England because people have preconceived ideas about Australians being like cavemen anyway. I'm sort of halfway there with people's prejudices so I can play on that.

Q:A lot of people will remember you as Joe Mangle in Neighbours.

ML:One of the phenomenal things of British culture has been Neighbours and I seem to be slap bang in the middle of it. It's quite an extraordinary thing.

I created a monster. I was only in the show for three years but it seems to have stuck in people's minds because he was funny. You could have a cry and a laugh with Joe. I'm really proud of how Joe has been perceived by the British public and it's an honour to be treated like a British legend.

Q:Were you surprised by his popularity?

ML:It was a real shock and surprise. I had come over here to do other work but Joe Mangle just stepped in and took over. Everyone thought I was a gardener and it's been hard for me to get other work since then. So the character was a bit of a double edged sword.

Q:What made you decide to come to England in the first place? What's the attraction for so many Australian actors?

ML:I'd been doing a lot of my own comedy as well as Neighbours and the Edinburgh festival is like the holy grail for a lot of young comedians and I was always trying to get there.

I finally went there in 1990 and did a tour of Britain. That was just as Joe Mangle was popping. So it was the theatre scene which attracted me to the UK.

It was the fact that I could devise my own show, put it on in Edinburgh and tour it on the theatre circuit which Australia didn't have at that time.

In the early 1990s there was no theatre circuit over there and no way to perform around the country and make a quid out of it. Australia is all about sport. If it's not sport, it's nothing. It was also the need to get out of Australia and look at the big wide world with my family.

Defending The Caveman. The Orchard Theatre, Home Gardens, Dartford. Sunday to Tuesday. 01322 220099 or email orchardtheatre.co.uk