'I've done my bird ..time to go home' EXCLUSIVE CHARLES BRONSON, PRISONER NO. BT1314, HAS SPENT 30 YEARS IN SOLITARY. NOW HE IS RELEASING A SINGLE ASKKING FOR FREEDOM.

Byline: By JEREMY ARMSTRONG

HUNCHED over a tape recorder in a darkened cell known as "The Cage", Charlie Bronson sings the Sinatra classic My Way.

It is early morning and the dark, gravel tones of Britain's most notorious prisoner echo around his high security block in Wakefield Prison.

He has already done his daily 2,500 press-ups (94 every 30 seconds), dabbled in his pictures, which sell for pounds 2,500 a canvas, and written for his website, where his blog is read by thousands of supporters.

Now 55, Bronson, prisoner number BT1314, has spent 33 years inside following his initial imprisonment for robbery. This will be his 30th year in solitary confinement.

But Bronson is singing for a reason, convinced that 2008 is the year he will walk free.

His life behind bars has cost more than pounds 1million, seen him take hostages in 10 jail sieges, attack at least 20 officers and cause pounds 500,000 damage in rooftop protests.

His version of My Way is being released as a single to fund an appeal against the kidnap conviction for which he was given a life sentence. A new book, Loonyology, is released next year, along with a film based on his life.

There are personalised T-shirts, mugs, beer glasses and stickers - 2,000 supporters have now joined the Free Charlie Bronson campaign.

And the man dubbed Britain's most violent prisoner believes he will taste freedom for one simple reason. He just isn't violent any more.

"Have I not proved to everybody that I have changed?" he asks.

"I have not been violent for eight years. They call me Britain's most violent man - every time I see it in the paper I feel like I am reading about someone else.

For the past eight years, the grim, solitary existence in a specially-built isolation unit is all Bronson has known.

Locked away for 23 hours a day in a 24ft by 10ft "cell within a cell", the view from his window is a brick wall, his daily hour-long "exercise" always alone, his only daily human contact the warders pushing food through a grate in a steel double door.

First jailed for armed robbery in 1969, he has had 69 days of freedom in 33 years. On the day I spoke to Bronson, it was his mother Eira Peterson's 77th birthday.

The last time she saw her son outside jail was in 1974. A loaf cost 23p, a pint of milk was 12.5p and the average house was worth pounds 10,000.

Bronson is awaiting a legal ruling which could give prisoners like him - lifers who have served the recommended tariff - grounds for release.

Failing that, Bronson is appealing to the Criminal Case Review Commission against his conviction for kidnapping a prison teacher inside Hull Prison in 1999. He is due before the Parole Board next month.

"If the courts find in our favour, it opens the floodgates for 12,500 lifers," he said. "I'd be top of that list because I am not a murderer and I've paid my debt to society.

"I also still have my own appeal against my life sentence. I have never been a danger to the public.

"I have taken hostages - not proud of it - but that was in prison and I was fighting the system. I have learned that you cannot beat the system.

"I was a nasty bastard but that is behind me now."

He has had a suit tailored for the day he walks free (48in chest, 38in waist, 17in collar).

ALTHOUGH the Prison Service is adamant Bronson remains a danger, he says: "I'm not and never been a psychopath, never enjoyed violence, never got a kick out of it.

"I have been with some of the most violent, evil people you could ever meet, but I have never been in that category. They say I am a risk to society, but I say 'prove it'.

"My crimes outside were not that dangerous, my violence started in prison, when I was put in belts and straitjackets.

"I believe I should have been punished. I have been punished. Now it is time to go home, I have done my bird."

If he is freed, Bronson, who changed his name from Michael Peterson when he was a boxer in honour of the movie tough guy, will teach young prisoners about the reality of jail life-making sure they never come back again.

"I get sack-loads of letters and I've become an agony uncle," he says. "They won't listen to MPs, police, screws - but they listen to me."

Bronson is kept alive by dreams of freedom. He talks of "walking under the stars, eating fish and chips, in a pub with my mates having a pint of Guinness, taking my mum for a meal, simple beautiful things."

Bronson has already planned his first day as a free man. "I'm going out with the biggest smile you have ever seen. I am going to sing It's A Wonderful Life.

"People will say 'he has been locked away 30 years and he comes out singing, he is no nasty, evil man'. I have no need to commit crime any more, no need at all.

"I not crying about it and I am not ashamed of what I have done. But it is time to go free."

A day in the lifer..

6.30am STARTS his day with 10 sets of 50 press-ups and 10 sets of 50 sit-ups, before walking up and down his cell.

8am A COOKED breakfast, or cereal and toast, is pushed through the hatch on his giant steel cell door.

9am SHAVES his head and face before embarking on a morning of artwork, letter writing or reading.

Noon LISTENS to Radio Five Live, reads and does more of his 2,500 daily press-ups.

1pm LUNCH is served - a main meal of fish or meat and vegetables, with a choice of dessert.

2pm WORKS out in a 24ft x 10ft area, surrounded by a high wire fence. He can go months without seeing another inmate.

4pm DOES another round of press-ups and sit-ups, before having a shower.

5pm EATS a light evening meal of sandwiches, cake or a snack.

6pm PERMITTED to make calls for 15 minutes before having a pint of tea.

7pm MORE press-ups, and walking up and down his cell.

8pm CELL door is locked for the night, after which he starts work on poetry, art and his campaign for freedom.

10pm HAS a "strip wash" before lights out. Listens to the James Whale radio show.

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CAPTION(S):

POSTER: He warns young offenders; RIGHT, CHARLIE: A Bronson cartoon; Danger to the public? The most recent picture of Charles Bronson, "Britain's most dangerous man"; VIOLENT: Wakefield Prison is home to 600 dangerous offenders; FIGHTING FIT: Bronson lifts weights in jail