ay Meagher has assured \'Home and Away\' fans he "isn\'t going anywhere" - despite planning to cut down his workload by five weeks a year.
The 74-year-old actor has played Alf Stewart on the Australian soap ever since the pilot episode in January 1988, but he is to take "a tiny bit more time out" from the programme after signing a new deal.
Speaking on \'This Morning\', he said: "Over the last 10, 15, maybe 20 years, each Christmas I go over to your country to do a pantomime.
"And more recently I went over twice to do \'Priscilla, Queen of the Desert\' in the West End - once was a six-month stint, and another a run of four months in that same show.
"So if you average my time over the last 10 or 15 years, I probably work 40 weeks a year.
"From now on, on a new contract, I\'ll probably work 35, 36 weeks of the year.
"It\'s just taking a tiny bit more time out - but I ain\'t going nowhere."
Ray recently revealed he has put pen to paper on another three-year \'Home and Away\' deal, and insists he isn\'t considering retirement.
He said: "I don\'t really think much about retirement. I guess the time will come and I will, but I just signed another contract for three years ... but sometimes contracts are made to be broken.
"We work for 46 weeks of the year, but I have clauses where I can give producers a reasonable amount of notice for them to write me out to go to the UK and do pantomimes or to go to London and do \'Priscilla\' in the West End.
"In this latest contract I said I wanted to work less weeks, so we\'ve worked that out, but I\'ll still be there more often than not."
