The actress, well-known for her portrayal of the Duckworths' landlady, Eunice Gee, in Coronation Street, started her stage career on the amateur stage.

In time-honoured showbusiness tradition she was "discovered" by the late Carl Paulsen, who was then Theatre Administrator at the Oldham Coliseum.

"I had a wonderful time as an amateur," she said. It is a wonderful hobby and I loved it.

"I must have played every leading role there is."

But it was at the Coliseum she polished her craft.

She returns to the theatre next month in the world premiere of the seventies' musical, Hotpants, written by Kenneth Alan Taylor and John Morton.

Meg plays the leading role of Nita. Camp

"Nita is this rather camp lady who goes on holiday to Spain with her boring husband, " Meg said. They meet a mix of colourful characters including a drag queen and there're plenty of very funny situations and classic numbers."

I spoke to Meg during a break in rehearsals for Hotpants and she recalled her early days at Oldham.

"The first thing I was in was pantomime and I played principal girl to William Roache's principal boy," she said. Roache of course is a stalwart of Coronation Street as Ken Barlow.

Meg has done a great deal of television work including parts in Lovejoy and Taggart, recorded many radio plays and appeared in numerous musicals.

She recently completed a West End run of Chicago in which she played Mama Morton and was thrilled that for a period Joel Grey - he played the malicious Master of Ceremonies in the film version of Cabaret - was in the production and sang Mr Cellophane Man. Back in Coronation Street, Meg found her character was enjoying life more than she had previously.

"Eunice is much more fun to play now," Meg said. "She used to do a lot of worrying."

Meg has a son who is a dentist and a daughter, Stephanie Johns, an actress, currently appearing in Grease in London. "I didn't encourage her at all," Meg said. "She made the decision to do it.

Meg is delighted to be back at the Coliseum.

"Back in the sixties I appeared at the Coliseum a lot," she said. "I really love it here. The atmosphere is wonderful and the theatre is so well supported. I can't tell you how much I'm enjoying the rehearsals and it's good to be singing and dancing again, although it's also very tiring. I don't know what Jack and Vera will say about it though.

Hotpants runs from April 1 until April 24.

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