A row has broken out over dwarf actors after a Shrek production hired a 6ft man to play a 'vertically challenged' actor on his knees.

When Bill Nicholson, a retired police officer, read about a showing of Shrek the Musical at the Theatre Royal in Plymouth, he felt ‘disgusted’ after he discovered a 6ft tall actor had been cast as Lord Farquaad, a “vertically challenged” villain.

The retired police officer, who is a regular theatre goer, has since pledged to boycott his local playhouse after he felt people with dwarfism were being frozen out of stage productions.

Having conducted some research of his own Mr Nicholson, 75, claimed taller men and women were more likely to be cast in productions over dwarfs because the bigger actors were cheaper to employ. As a result he said smaller people were being “frozen out”.

Samuel Holmes, the actor who plays Lord Farquaad in the touring production, has to shuffle around the stage on his knees in order to portray the height difference. The actor, who has appeared in numerous plays including Mrs Henderson Presents and Dick Whittington, said being on his knees for the whole time was one of the biggest challenges of his career.

"It's hard work because physically I had never done that before - I have done about 28 years of theatre work and have always done it on my feet,” he said.