Judy Cornwell tells MARION SAUVEBOIS all about her role as Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple 

THERE is no predicting when or where an adoring, if a little eager, fan will corner Judy Cornwell bawling “Daisyyyyyy”. That’s the price she pays for fronting Keeping up Appearances, one of the BBC’s most successful sitcoms to date. She is always happy to indulge her admirers but one close-quarters encounter in a lift in Dubai left her itching to bolt.

“The war had broken out in Iraq and I thought I’d better stay in the hotel compound,” says the actress. “I came back from a swim and got in the lift and somebody jumped in. He looked at me very hard so I looked down at the floor and he pointed at me and went ‘Haha’. I thought, here we go, it will be in the news, ‘Actress attacked in Dubai lift’ and I looked straight back at him and he said, ‘You are good actress’ and ‘Daiiissyyy’. He was from Syria. The lift got to my floor and I leapt and ran like hell to my room,” she chuckles. “It’s so strange to think that this man had watched Keeping Up Appearances in Syria.”

Since the 1960s, Judy has enjoyed a sustained career across television and radio and even penned novels and an autobiography. At last she is returning to her first love, the stage, to tackle another iconic role – one she had coveted for the best part of 50 years: Agatha Christie’s astute sleuth, Miss Marple in A Murder is Announced.

It is not to say she didn’t have a few ‘brushes’ with the part over the past five decades. She played opposite Joan Hickson’s Miss Marple in the television series and was recently cast as Dora Bunner in a radio adaptation of A Murder is Announced on Radio 4. But blame her youthful looks, she was never quite mature enough to bag the title role – until now. At a venerable 76, she is finally following in the eminent footsteps of her idol Hickson as the shrewd elderly spinster.

“I was thrilled to death,” she gushes. “I remember first seeing the film with Margaret Rutherford who brought out all the comedy of the character and then of course Joan Hickson came along and she was wonderful. I admired how she presented the role and I thought, ‘If I get to that age I would like to play that part’.”

She is relishing the opportunity to play a woman with a sharp brain, who although she is getting on, always one-ups the police.

“I’ve always thought that Miss Marple showed people who are over 70 to be aware, to be taking in things and noticing everything – even if they’re knitting. And I thought this is just perfect. There’s so many pressures on people as they get older with bloody letters coming through the post about planning your funeral or old people’s homes.”

In A Murder is Announced, the residents of Chipping Cleghorn wake up to find an advert in the local newspaper claiming a murder will take place the following Friday at Little Paddocks, the home of Letitia Blacklock. Unable to resist, a group gathers at the house at the appointed time. Miss Marple must unravel a complex series of events to unmask the killer.

Judy became a professional dancer and comedienne in her teens, working her act between the nudes at the Irving Theatre. Her first audition though was at her local theatre, the Brighton hippodrome. All dancers had to be at least 17, but she was a few months shy. She recalls pouring a messy “ink blob” on her national insurance card to conceal her date of birth.

“I didn’t fool anyone,” laughs Judy, who has been married for 55 years to John Parry, the BBC’s first Arts Correspondent. “The man who was casting all the ballet dancers said, ‘I’m letting you in my girl, but only because of your cheek’.”

After witnessing the Bolshoi ballerinas in action, she decided to abandon dance and focus on acting, learning the ropes in rep.

“I worked there for 30 shillings cleaning the stage and looking after all the props, and waiting to be cast in a part. The first part was as a maid and I walked on one side and walked out the other side put a tray on the table. One director spotted me in a summer season and put me forward for Granada. You need a basin-full of luck in this business.”

She began making a name for herself in television and, by 1968, she and the late Donald Pleasance won an Emmy for their two-hander Call Me Daddy on ITV. In the 1990s, she hit the big time at home and abroad with Keeping Up Appearances which is still shown in 66 countries.

Now well in her 70s, A Murder Is Announced’s packed performance calendar has taken its toll, she admits. But Judy is holding her own and even showing up a few of her young co-stars.

“I notice all the young ones get tired and I say, ‘How dare you get tired I’m three times your age,” she giggles. “It’s quite fun working with them: they all treat me like Grandma. But I might get told a few dirty jokes too.”

A Murder is Announced runs at the Wyvern Theatre from April 12 to 16. To book call the box office on 01793 524481 or visit swindontheatres.co.uk