As lovable mechanic Minty Peterson in EastEnders he was partial to a greasy spoon fry-up or a takeaway – and Cliff Parisi admits he's no different in real life.
However, the actor now has two small children, and plans to turn his life around before his love of fatty food gets the better of him.
"I like my food," says Cliff, 62. "I love curries, fish and chips, a fry-up, Italian food. As a kid I loved school dinners, I loved everything about them. I'd eat spam fritters all day."
Now equally well-known as handy-man Fred Buckle in Call the Midwife, Cliff says that being "a bit of a demon with a barbecue" meant he was "chuffed" to be asked to go on this year's Celebrity MasterChef, which starts tonight.
The show has got the doting dad-of-five to rethink what he puts in his body.
"I've been trying to eat more of a balanced diet," he says. "I do soaked oats twice a day. I try to avoid chocolate biscuits, and I’ve lost half a stone this week. I want to stay healthy."
Cliff, who will appear alongside host Gareth Malone, boxer Chris Eubank, All Saints singer Mel Blatt and reality star Mojo, says the cooking competition affected him in other unexpected ways.
He says: "It evokes emotions, about your childhood, like cakes that grandad used to cook. And when they like what you cook it really wells you up, it’s like they’re acknowledging a bit of you.
"[The judges] John [Torode] and Gregg [Wallace] become like mummy and daddy, you just want to please them all the time. It's like presenting them with your newborn child, you really want them to say it's pretty."
But he insists he couldn't have done it without Tara, the mother of his two youngest children, who he wed in 2010.
He has three other grown-up children from previous relationships and says: "She's been brilliant, written out all my recipes and got me the ingredients so I can test them at home.
"And she's given me lots of advice. Like, don't be an idiot, keep pulling your shirt down so you look presentable, don't swear, She gives me advice all the time, I don't always listen to it but I should."
As he chats in his garden in Essex, Cliff does not appear too different to big softie Minty or happy-go-lucky Fred. The actor, written out of EastEnders in 2010, admits he brings his sense of humour into every role.
He says: "I have a tendency to turn a drama into a comedy. That's probably why EastEnders got rid of me. I turned it into a sitcom."
Cliff admits his exit from Albert Square after eight years wasn't his choice - but with Call the Midwife, which he joined in 2012, filming its 12th series, and EastEnders ratings at their lowest level ever, it may have been the right time to go.
"I watch EastEnders from time to time," he says. "I don’t know if it's a problem with the show, or the way people watch TV. We can boast about our ratings on Midwife but we only do nine episodes in a year and EastEnders do four a week.
"EastEnders is still good. Maybe its heyday was when it was two episodes a week. With four it's hard to keep that standard and for the audience to find time to watch it.
"We've all got busy lives. And if you watch four episodes a week you'll end up with PTSD."
A true Eastender born in London's Poplar, Cliff admits he "went off the rails" at a young age, and at 19 was jailed for 18 months for his part in a bank robbery.
He learned to read and write in jail after spending his childhood in and out of care, then tried acting through a prisoners' rehab programme, changing his name from Manley to Parisi.
He found success as one half of a double act, playing lost Argentinian comedians who took the wrong ship home after the Falklands War.
He recalls: "We were quite popular. We went round abusing the audiences because we hated the English. We were really funny. This was soon after the Falklands War, and we had the Argentinian flag flying on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, by the military tattoo.
"A colonel came down and said, ‘who put that flag up there?’ He brought the whole brigade down, and they sat in the audience, and we s*** ourselves. But they loved it, they came back night after night."
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Cliff, 62, got his Equity card so he could follow his dream of acting on TV, appearing on The Bill and Kavanagh QC before auditioning for EastEnders. Call the Midwife, set around the time he was born, often takes him back to his childhood.
"It constantly evokes emotions," he says. "Sometimes you look at a kid wearing some clothes and it brings a tear to your eye because you go, ‘that’s me’. Those brown sandals, those grey socks with the green stripes at the top, that little knitted jumper my nan did."
Cliff is disappointed about his stint on I'm A Celebrity in 2019, when he was the third to be voted out: "I had a great time, but wish I’d done better. I had whiplash and was on painkillers. I'd go back with pleasure if they asked but I don't think they will."
He also doesn’t think he'll ever be asked to play a role different from the characters he's known for. He said: "In the word 'typecast' there’s the word 'cast', which will do for me.
"People wouldn't buy it if I were something else. I never went to drama school. I just went in, worked hard, and I love what I do. If I'm working, I'm happy."
Celebrity MasterChef is on BBC One and iPlayer.
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