LESLEY Joseph is best known for playing Dorien Green in the sitcom Birds of a Feather, alongside Pauline Quirke and Linda Robson, but the stage is her first love and this week she is set to ruffle some features in Derry as she reprises her role as the tyrannical Miss Hannigan in the musical Annie.
Set in 1930s New York during The Great Depression, brave young Annie is forced to live a life of misery and torment at Miss Hannigan's orphanage. Determined to find her real parents, Annie’s luck changes when she is chosen to spend Christmas at the residence of famous billionaire Oliver Warbucks. However, Miss Hannigan has other ideas and hatches a plan to spoil Annie's search.
Joseph, whose first stage appearance was in 1973 in Godspell at Bournemouth's Pavilion Theatre, loves the buzz of the live performance. "It's why I went into the business back in the day and I've done it all my life. I love the challenge of theatre because you are doing a very special performance for one person for that night only."
Although she has appeared in Belfast on numerous occasions, including Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and The Calendar Girls, this is Joseph's first visit to Derry. "That's one of the joys of touring - seeing places you haven't been to before," says the London-born actress.
Having played the role of Miss Hannigan previously in London's West End - how does this production compare?
"This is done in a much more modern way. It's very sparing and as it's based in the depression it's much darker and more real, without the sentimentality that it is usually done with."
Has she brought those gritty characteristics into her role?
"Playing Miss Hannigan, you have to make sure you don't make her a caricature as it's very much a character which could be over the top. I do try and make her a bit understandable as to why she is as nasty as she is. The orphans are having a rough time, but so is she. She's stuck with them and if Annie run away she would loose her job and be homeless like the people in Hooverville."
This new production includes all the unforgettable songs - It's The Hard Knock Life, Easy Street, Maybe, I Don't Need Anything But You and Tomorrow - and Joseph admits she had to learn "a lot more choreography".
She is especially enjoying performing Easy Street. "It's a great number. But if I had to choose another it would be Tomorrow because that really is an anthem of hope. It starts with 'It's always a day away' and at the end 'it's only a day away', giving the message that you can get there."
Seventy-year-old Joseph has legs that a 30-year-old would die for and the energy of a teenager, so what is the secret to appearing so youthful?
"Just eating carefully and exercising. I do yoga. It takes a lot of hard work, but I love it," she laughs.
And will we be seeing her strutting her stuff on the Strictly Come Dancing dancefloor later this year?
"No. I would have done it in the early days, but it's so competitive and they have to rehearse so much," she quickly replies.
Joseph and her co-stars in Birds of a Feather recorded more than 100 episodes in nine years and returned to our screens in 2013 after a successful UK theatre tour the previous year.
Even in the intervening years, the three were in regular contact.
"We've worked together since 1989 and we will always be part of each others lives. What you see on television is what we are – very close friends – and people have told us that the comeback shows were like catching up with old friends, which was lovely."
A new series of the sitcom is currently airing and Joseph describes it as "one of the best we've ever done".
"That's not to say there haven't been individual episodes I've loved in the past but I think as a corporate piece of work with eight episodes it's been a phenomenal series."
Although not yet re-commissioned, as it is dependent upon current viewer ratings, Joseph would love to see Dorien return for another series. So what are some of the episodes which made her laugh the most?
"Singing Like a Virgin in the karaoke bar back in the old days, because that's the one thing everybody says was amazing. But the first one of this series with Martin Kemp driving a hearse comes a close second."
Far from being a Hard Knock Life, Joseph admits that "she has never been busier" and believes that the trend for TV roles for older women is on an upward turn.
"My age has never affected me. But I look at the likes of Helen Mirren, Maggie Smith, Alison Steadman and Maureen Lipman and there are a lot of women out there flying the flag. It will take time, but I do think it's changing and there are roles for older women in television and theatre."
And is there anything she still wants to achieve in her career?
"I'd love to do a Chekhov play at London's National Theatre – that's my dream."
Annie – The Musical runs at Derry's Millennium Forum from tomorrow until Saturday February 27. For tickets and information, see www.millenniumforum.co.uk or call 028 7126 4455
