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PASADENA, Calif. -- He slipped into our collective consciousness 27 years ago, wearing fishnets and a corset as transsexual Transylvanian Frank N. Furter in the celebrated film The Rocky Horror Picture Show . Since then, we've awaited his every project with delicious anticipation.

So to meet him in the flesh, to watch him stand perfectly still and politely answer questions, to see the twinkle in his large eyes and hear that famous British baritone is a sensorially splendid experience.

The show is an updated version of that well-regarded chestnut, and it is safe for the whole family. Curry, bless him, plays French with humorous but controlled exasperation. Those tuning in to see whether Curry's French might be an older, strait-laced version of the sharp-tongued Furter may be disappointed.

This new Family Affair closely resembles the old. The show's tone, title sequences and music are virtual replicas, even though the show is set in the present.

To generations unfamiliar with the original, and for those who may have forgotten, the show is about a swinging bachelor, Bill Davis, a handsome, successful engineer whose domestic needs are tended to by a very English gentleman's gentleman, Giles French. Their lives are suddenly changed by the arrival of three children -- 6-year-old twins and their 14-year-old sister, the children of Davis' brother and sister-in-law, who have died. How this new family adjusts provides the show its modus operandi.

Gary Cole, who has developed a knack for resurrecting television icons (he was Mike Brady in two well-received Brady Bunch movies), plays the role the late Brian Keith made famous in the original. Caitlin Wachs portrays Sissy (Kathy Garver played the original teen, who spelled her name Cissy). Jimmy "Jax" Pinchak and Sasha Pieterse are Jody and Buffy, parts played by Johnnie Whitaker and the late Anissa Jones.

The mischievous twins and the ready-to-date Sissy are the show's plot shakers. But its humor rests squarely on the shoulders of French.

Curry is quite familiar with American television, not only because he's called the United States home for a quarter century, but also because he's done an abundance of American television work. He recently filmed a pilot for the WB that was not picked up. He and Annie Potts starred in an unsuccessful comedy called Over the Top, and he has guest-starred on numerous shows, from Buffy the Vampire Slayer to Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego to Wiseguy.

Still, "I was sort of a little iffy about going back to television. But Gavin (executive producer Gavin Palone) explained why doing Family Affair was a good idea. He said, 'It's a fairy tale, you idiot.' And a light came on in my head. I went home, read the script aloud and laughed. I mean, I thought it was funny. And I don't have to pack and go to Romania and play some Cinemascope villain.

"One of the things that really drew me to it is that he's essentially a nice guy. He's kind of a buttoned-up sweetheart. And I love the comedy of humiliation. I really love the situation of a guy who has these grim responsibilities thrust upon him and has no clue how to deal with them.

"And to be funny, or try to be funny, on a regular basis was very appealing to me."

The original Family Affair was on CBS until 1971, well before Curry made it to this side of the pond.

Unlike his character on Family Affair, the never-married Curry, 56, gets on quite well with children.

"Well, children," he said, eyes twinkling, lip curling, grin forming. "I like them with black bean sauce."

Actually, he said, his sister has children. "I'm very close to my nieces and spoil them rotten."

Curry knows funny. He's been practicing since he was a child.

"I was a pretty relentless clown as a kid. I mean, my dad died when I was 12, and in an imaginative life, humor seemed like a pretty good option."

He did it properly in the 1975 film that made him a cult star. But The Rocky Horror Picture Show, which for years played at midnight in movie theaters across the country (and still does in some places) is not a topic Curry likes to revisit.

"Well, it would be pretty dumb not to distance myself," he said. "It was 25 years ago, give me a freaking break."

But audiences still celebrate it.

"Well, I do, too," he said. "I'm terribly proud of it. I should have the luck to be the star of a movie that's run for 25 years and that people are still inspired by, that kids love, that give them alternative patterns of sexuality that make them feel good about themselves. I love all of that.

"(But) I don't really want to answer another question about the meaning of Frank N. Furter for the rest of my life. I think I did it, and enough already."

A safer topic: gardening.

"Right now, I'm building my back garden. I'm building two terraces, a fireplace and a pool. And a koi pond, because I love fish. I really do like to get my hands dirty.

"I'm not a draftsman, I'm not a painter, although I try a bit. But you can paint with flowers and you can sculpt with plants, and you can make people very happy. In a planet that's increasingly covered by yards and yards of concrete, which you know is going to be trashed in a few years, any piece of land or any terra-cotta pot that you can make beautiful seems to me a valuable thing to do."

Is gardening a release from work?

He grinned. "There have been times when making a garden was truly the most creative thing I was doing in Hollywood."

One last question: How did his dream of being an actor compare to what has happened?

"It's beyond my wildest dreams. I hoped I would do a play in the West End. I hoped I would do a movie. I dreamed I would do an American movie. I never dreamed I would have ... I really never call it a `career' because it implies a certain amount of forethought, and I can't pretend there's been any. But I never thought I'd have a ride like this. I've been incredibly lucky. I've worked very hard. I've had a wonderful life. And I know it."

I must let you know that Richard is coming to Manchester again for his yearly fundraiser for the charity.  This time he is going off into uncharted territory here in the U.K. and holding a 'High Heels @ High Noon' Drag Race in Manchester City Centre midday Saturday 28th September followed by a Transvestite, transsexual ball in the Palace Hotel, Manchester in the evening.  The event is to cater for everyone, mainly transsexuals but to include all sections of the community, straight, bi, rocky horror.  He is trying to cross the great divide and bring everyone together.

For all the information on the events please log on to www.wayout-publishing.com then look for Transfandango events and scroll through. If you can put this info onto your own websites we would be most grateful as we need to market this extensively for it to be the success Richard is looking for.  Please ring me if you have any queries.

Regards
Charmaine