“I’m having a very nice time this week because I’m commuting, so it’s nice to be at home for a bit,” she said.

“I can potter about and get things done – like cleaning. I’ve had ten cleaners but none of them were very good.

“ I’m much better than them. And the cleaning gets done when you do it yourself.”

I hate cleaning, I told her. “Some people find it very therapeutic,” she pointed out. “I learn my lines when I’m ironing. It’s fantastic. And if I’m supposed to be annoyed in a line, the iron goes beserk!”

So, now you know the secret of Su’s success as an actress – ironing!

Su will be gracing Guildford’s Yvonne Arnaud Theatre with her presence next week to perform A Happy Medium.

“It’s a really good show, I love it,” she said.

“It’s very visual, there’s lots of special effects, spooky music and things.

“And it’s got a great farce element, things get very manic.”

In A Happy Medium Su plays Ellen Small, who wants to make contact with her dead sister to fulfil a promise made years ago.

“I would say it’s not cerebral,” Su said.

“It’s nice, fluffy entertainment that people come back from thinking, I had a good time tonight.”

So it’s definitely not one of those plays where you come back scratching your head and wondering, what on earth was that all about?

“There’s a place for that kind of entertainment,” Su said. “But I like some of it quite fluffy.”

So what are Su’s views on mediums and psychics? Has she ever been to see one?

“I went to see Madam Petrilenguo, from an old gipsy circus family, at Blackpool,” she said.
“But she said I’d be married four times and have six children.

“That hasn’t come true! I doubt I’d be able to have any children now.”

So Su’s not a believer in all things spiritual then? “I think for some people, if they want to believe in it and it gives them comfort, that’s fair enough,” she said.

“But it’s just so hard to think that people would come back again, or there’s somebody in the room but you can’t see them.

“I don’t know if that’s spooky or comforting, actually.” I tell her for me, it’s spooky, but then I was scared of Ghostbusters.

“I’m exactly the same as you,” she exclaimed.

“When I first watched the Hunchback of Notre Dame, it was just so ugly, I had nightmares and used to wake up screaming.

“And I would have been no good in the war, because I can’t stand pain!”

After A Happy Medium there’s Annie, which Su’s doing instead of panto.

Then she’s off to New York to perform in a supper club as cabaret – and she’s in talks about a new sitcom as well.

I asked Su if she would ever consider stepping away from her lighthearted, comic work and do something more gritty.

“If the role was good, and challenging, and I felt I could get satisfaction out of it, then I would give it some thought,” she said.

Isn’t she worried she wouldn’t be taken seriously because of being seen as a comic actress?

“I think people would accept me. People do assume, quite rightly, that I’m known for comedy, but if it’s good stuff, I could be accepted for that,” she said.

Su will, however, be sticking to comedy with A Happy Medium, at the Yvonne Arnaud in Guildford from Monday to Saturday, May 15. 

Cathy Wallace

Horsham Today
May 2004