Sir Cliff Richard says he could be dead next year

According to The Mirror, he told New Zealand radio station Coast: "I'm sure the audience will see that we - the big band and I - are friends and almost a family when we're on tour. So, we'll try and do something that will make it look as though I'm 18! But I'm not.

"I don't want to be an 85-year-old guy trying to be 18. The thing I would have to give up probably at some time is touring. It's very wearing, and you never know when you wake up in the morning whether your voice is still there'.

"I might be dead the next year! So, I don't even think about it anymore. It's one of those things. As I get older maybe I'll become less able to perform, so I can't say."

Cliff previously insisted he will never retire as the word is not "in his vocabulary".

He told The Mirror: "I don't know if I ever want to retire. I don't mind stopping.

"Stopping would mean that I could absolutely change my mind any time I wanted to, or phone my office and say, 'Can you get us a couple of nights at the Royal Albert Hall?'

"So, retiring is not in my vocabulary, but stopping is good for me - I can work whenever I want to, if I want to."