ACTRESS Margot Leicester admits she is not the biggest fan of the monarchy.

The award-winning stage star is currently appearing in a controversial new play, exploring the people beneath the crowns, the unwritten rules of democracy and the conscience of Britain’s most famous family.

Margot, who has appeared at Bolton’s Octagon Theatre where her husband David Thacker is artistic director several times, is playing Camilla in King Charles III.

Mike Bartlett’s new play, originally staged at the Almeida Theatre, has been so well-received that its West End run has been extended until January 2015.

Margot said: “That’s been extended to the end of January.

“I will be there, apart from Christmas Day and Sundays, every day from now on.

“It’s good that it’s been extended. It feels a bit of a long run but it only happens if it’s a success.

“It’s set on the day of the Queen’s funeral. It’s an imagined future history play.

“It’s written in blank verse, like Shakespeare.

“It’s a view of what would happen if Charles did ascend to the throne and what would the conflicts and problems be.

“I play Camilla, it’s a very small part.

“The role she played in the break-up of Prince Charles and Princess Diana’s marriage is not in the play at all.

“She is presented totally sympathetically.

“She is really portrayed in the play as someone who is very much in love with her husband.

“She thinks that both Charles and the monarchy are wonderful.

“I’m a republican.

“I think the monarchy is the most exploitative and anti-democratic institution of all time.

“I don’t think the play reinforces the idea that the monarchy is a good thing.

“I think it raises questions about the monarchy and asks people to engage in a debate about it.”

With David’s commitments in Bolton, the couple has a house in Chapeltown, as well as their family home in London.

Margot said: “When David first went up to work at the Octagon, we had two children in Northern universities — Leeds and Lancaster.

“Now they are all back in London.

“This time last year, I had been working at the Octagon maybe for six months.

“There isn’t a routine as such.”

In 1994, Margot was nominated for a prestigious Olivier Award for Broken Glass at the National Theatre, directed by David, and the pair worked together last year on The Glass Menagerie, at the Octagon.

Speaking of working with her husband, she said: “It’s lovely. That’s how we met and I think we enjoy it very much.

“If I’m right for the part then that’s great for me to be to able to work with him and share that time.”

They met 32 years ago when they were working on a play at the Duke's Playhouse in Lancaster, were married two years later and have four children, aged 30, 27, 25 and 22.

Margot, aged 65, said: “When I say those ages, I think, oh god.

“When I say their names, an eight-year-old comes up in your brain.

“They are all grown up with proper jobs.”

It was while a pupil at Bury Grammar School that Margot realised that she had an interest in acting and drama.

She said: “I used to love reading aloud, the bible in church.

“At Bury Grammar School, there was a great tradition of doing Shakespeare.

“It was Shakespeare that got me into theatre.

“We would have school trips to Stratford to see the shows there.”

Growing up in Middleton, she says the area was thriving for local theatre, from Manchester’s Library Theatre to venues in Oldham and Rochdale, and later Bolton’s Octagon, which opened in 1967.

She said: “I remember reading about it in the paper.

“The idea of this theatre in the round, an eight-sided building as it was.

“It was really radical and very amazing that Bolton was doing this.

“The great thing about the area, this part of the North West, is that it did have so many theatres.

“It was a great area to grow up because there were so many live events going on.

“People would have poetry recitals, theatre events, it was a really lively area, artistically, to grow up in.

“People think of it being mill towns and football but there was a lot more to it than that.

“All my friends seemed to live in Tottington.

“We have all stayed in touch, it was a very happy time.”

In June, Margot and husband David were among 19 high-profile figures to be awarded Honorary Doctorates at the University of Bolton.

She said: “It was such an honour to get an honorary doctorate for services to the arts this summer, which David and I got.

“That was wonderful.

“It really was lovely to be honoured by the university.

“I think it’s so brilliant that, in these times, Bolton has got all this going for it — a university that’s trying to expand and the theatre.”