'No-one takes any notice of you': 4ft 11in Elaine Paige reveals her height is her biggest 'insecurity' and has often caused her to be 'overlooked'

Elaine Paige has claimed her height is her biggest insecurity because she feels her 4ft 11in stature has often caused her to 'overlooked' in life.

The West End star, 72, admitted she is 'terribly shy' and self-conscious about her height, and said it is something she has suffered from since she was a young girl.

The singer revealed that she feels her diminutive frame has caused her to be constantly 'overlooked' in the acting business.

Speaking in an interview with this week's Radio Times, she said: 'I'm not even five foot tall and I felt – and still do on some occasions – that no one takes any notice of you because you're living life down here and a lot of the time 'down here' you get overlooked, literally.

'This is all part and parcel of this insecurity, if you like, and terrible shyness because you're not the same as everybody else and I was patronised a lot as a young girl.' 

Elaine can trace the insecurity back to her childhood when her dream of becoming a professional tennis player was 'crushed' by her headmistress who told her: 'But Elaine, dear, you can't even see over the net.'

'I've never forgotten it because in one sentence that woman devastated my dream. I was absolutely crushed,' she said. 

However, she believes playing the role of Evita in the West End show 'saved' her as Eva Perón was only five foot five herself. 

She reminisced on the opening night of Evita in 1978 when she received a nine-minute standing ovation, a life-changing moment which she says she remembers 'so clearly'.

'I did cry because it was completely and utterly overwhelming and I knew at that moment that my life had changed for ever, which it did,' she said.

Elaine won the Laurence Olivier Award for Performance of the Year for the role and it elevated her to stardom.

More recently, she played the role of Helen, a marijuana-smoking mistress in the hit BBC1 drama Life, which she said brought her back to her hippy past.  

She told the Lady magazine: 'I did smoke dope in Hair - I rolled joints - and that's what the scene reminded me of. That was part of life back in the Sixties.' 

The singer, who had a well-publicised 11-year affair with married lyricist Sir Tim Rice throughout the Eighties, is now busy planning her 23rd album and a concert tour for 2021 and says she has no time for relationships.

She added: 'I've been very fortunate - in fact I think having a man in my life would complicate matters somewhat. I just want an easy life.'

Read the full feature in this week's Radio Times, on sale now.