Robin Askwith is the man who ran around TV screens chasing housewives in the 1970s.

He played cheeky Cockney chappie Timothy Lea - the gap-toothed workman who always found himself zipping up his trousers in compromising situations - in the Confessions series of films.

The movies don’t seem too racy nowadays, but 1974’s Confessions Of A Window Cleaner topped the British box office in its day.

“All those films really were Carry On films with shagging in,” admits Askwith, the playboy with tales to tell from years in the movie business – from smoking dope with Jimi Hendrix to rolling around with Charlotte Rampling.

But just as the Carry On franchise is studied as a social document, the six Confessions films are now one for film buffs, he says.

“By people who study film they are now considered a piece of the history - like the dirty, saucy postcard, the films are an item of their times. They stand up as that because they were successful. They made millions and millions of pounds.”

He made the first film thinking it would “die on its arse”.

“I had signed a contract for five more films with Columbia Pictures not expecting having to make any more. You have no idea when you are doing anything it is going to become iconic. It’s the last thing on your mind. You are thinking about making a film and doing it the best you can. When Pink Floyd were making The Dark Side Of The Moon they were making a record.”

Uttering Confessions and The Dark Side Of The Moon in the same breath is a bit ambitious but Askwith reveals he was at Abbey Road when the band recorded its prog-rock masterpiece.

“I know Dave Gilmour and Nick Mason quite well,” says Askwith, who will share stories from his eventful life at Emporium in Brighton on Monday. “I was at Abbey Road when they recorded a lot of that. I was like that Woody Allen character Zelig in the 1970s. I was dancing with Madonna in New York when she was a dancer and I was sitting with Dave Gilmour telling him I’m not sure that will work on Dark Side Of The Moon. I was in some very interesting places.”

How did Dave react when the actor pitched in a few ideas? “I’ve done that to hundreds of people,” he says, without answering the question. “I told Harrison Ford to change his name.” Really? “Yes - anything better than two surnames.”

The two actors shared an office when Ford was making Star Wars and Askwith was making Stand Up, Virgin Soldiers.

“I remember he was sitting in the canteen. He wasn’t Harrison Ford then he was just making Star Wars, which was never gonna be finished because they’d run out of money. There were bits of cardboard and faulty electronics all over the place. There were lots of actors no one had heard of and Mark Hamill. I was introduced to them because I was the big star at the time at Elstree Studios. “I said, ‘what’s your name?’ He said, ‘Harrison Ford’. I said, ‘you’re joking - that’s not gonna work. You’re gonna have to change that. You can’t have two surnames’. He got very upset. He thought I was right.”

Askwith’s long career has included appearances in Bottle Boys and Benidorm and he popped up in Coronation Street last year. As a young man he wanted to be a Shakespearean actor and make films. He even worked on a Franco Zeffirelli before landing the role as Lea. In truth, his work has never matched the Confessions series’ success. But what did he have other actors didn’t have?

“A very small penis! No, seriously – and I talk about this in show - I seem to manage to get away with doing the most outrageous things sexually and making it come over with charm. It was a sort of knack of taking my trousers down and running around and having women go, ‘isn’t he cute?’ and men wouldn’t be threatened by me.”

Misty Moon Film Society presents an audience with Robin Askwith
Emporium, London Road, Brighton, Monday, November 10