Who's going to go into a bookshop and say 'give us that magazine with Tommo in the nude'?

Ricky Tomlinson

He said: "It was a big offer and a serious offer, but I just said no.

"Who's going to go into a bookshop and say 'give us that magazine with Tommo in the nude'?"

Doing a job

Tomlinson did not reveal which magazine had made him the offer. He has already bared his backside in the Ken Loach film Riff Raff.

Fans can also look forward to his first naked love scene, in the next series of the BBC drama Clocking Off, which begins on 11 March.

But he said appearing naked on screen is different to posing for a magazine.

"On screen you're actually doing it for the job," he said.

"It's not like you're sitting there looking like Burt Reynolds. Mind you if I looked like Burt Reynolds I'd probably do it."

Samuel L Jackson will star with Tomlinson

He also revealed that he has turned down a part in Steven Spielberg's forthcoming film Minority Report, which is expected to star Tom Cruise - because he is too busy.

He will be shooting for another film, Mike Bassett: England Manager, at the time.

But he will soon be seen alongside Samuel L Jackson and Robert Carlyle as a drug dealer in 51st State, which was partly filmed in his native Liverpool.

He said his Royle Family fame helped him overshadow his co-stars from time to time.

"We parked near this girls' school near Litherland and all these girls came out shouting 'We want Jim'," he said.

"The others were all saying 'who's this Jim?'. All they were interested in was this little fat fella."