Tiny triumph

"I'VE been told a lot of things in my career. A casting director told me if I had extra bone put below my knees it would add an extra two inches and allow me to work more. I was with an agent who said that I've got such a distinctive face that if I were taller then I would work much more and urged me to have the operation... hence I'm still four foot 11 inches and still working," says Sue Devaney, blowing a big raspberry.

The 40-year-old is actually discussing her latest dynamic contribution to screen and stage, one-third of the latest 'all things female' show Girls Behind from the pen of Milton Keynes writer Louise Roche. Billingham Forum signed up for the debut tour, which plays from Wednesday until Friday, featuring ten years in the life of an unsuccessful singing trio called The Diamonds, until one of them gains a whiff of the big time.

With hit series like Dinnerladies and Casualty on her CV, Devaney - her real name is actually Barber - she is more used to success than failure. And the Rochedale-raised actress doesn't grumble about never being seen as a romantic lead.

"If you don't look or sound a certain way then you're never going to get those roles, but then there are so many other parts out there. Keira Knightley couldn't do what I'm doing, she's too young to be in Girls Behind. She's beautiful but when I went to see those Pirates Of The Caribbean films her comedy timing is shocking. Stick to Atonement, leave the comedy to four foot 11 Northerners love," she says.

"I've worked with Gordon The Gopher and with one of the Nolans (Maureen, one of the co-stars in Girls Behind) so that's two legends in a lifetime," adds Devaney.

She loves the Northern brashness of the Girls Behind creator and adds: "I like the fact that she writes for women... and women of a certain age, it's not your twenty-year-olds, so it's interesting for middle-aged women dare I say. You don't get a lot of good quality new writing for women of a certain age. So that's what appealed to me most at first."

The play, just like Louise Roche's popular Girls' Night, again highlights the area of women frustrated in life who, in this case, are showbiz wannabes.

"They've been mates since school and set up this singing act in this really rough around the edges venue, the Star Club, and the play features a period of ten years. It's about life, loves and friendship.

"There's also lots of jealousy because Lois, played by Donna Hazleton, is really into her singing and because her parents are wealthy she can have everything she wants. Sadie, played by Maureen Nolan, wants to get out of the drudgery of working in a supermarket, but then Lois ends up sleeping with the club manager who wants her to front the band."

She jokes about being "big in Rochdale" in terms of pantomime and has taken on a couple of rock'n'roll shows - Wake Up Little Suzie! and Good Golly Miss Molly! - in the North-West but admits "I'm more of an actress than a singer".

Her face is familiar to TV viewers having starred as Liz Harker the paramedic in Casualty and Jane in Dinnerladies and she's currently recording a BBC cartoon series called Harry and Toto for BBC.

Even so, Devaney gained her Equity card as a club act. "I had quite a few bands at first. There was one called The Dunky Dobbers - it was in the days of Bananarama so we thought it was pretty trendy - and we got a demo... we were happening. Then there has another called The Hasbeens doing Doris Day covers. Whenever I wasn't working I got a band together, so I've always been interested."

Although it looks like someone from the BBC likes her work, Devaney explains that this isn't quite the case. "A lot of the series are for independent companies which sell to the BBC and because it's shown on the BBC it doesn't necessarily mean that it has made it. To be honest, it is that thing of 'I am a jobbing actress and I go where the work is'. I think in this business you can never think that you've made it."

She sees acting as setting herself little goals. "As an actor you don't earn regular money and when you get a television job or a tour like this you know you're earning weekly so I know I'm going to have a regular wage until then. And that's the way I work, allowing myself enough money in the bank to survive being unemployed," she says.

"This way of life is mad, but it's all I've ever known, I don't know anything else." Not that she stops still even then. She's become involved in the adventure flights charity, Tigers For Kids, which provides air adventures for seriously ill children.

Devaney also claims to be writing a comedy play for herself with another well-known actor who she refuses to name.

"We're writing a two-hander but I'm not very disciplined and get impatient when writing while this friend of mine, who has done TV himself, is a brilliant writer. The play's called Rene Rawlings' Revelations and is a two-act show with music because I think I've got to an age where you want to do things for yourself that you enjoy. The mystery man helping me is a big secret. What I can say is that I'm 40 but we're playing 70-year-olds so you have to use your imagination," she says, bursting into laughter. "So watch this space... but he's already told me he's not going to any theatre without a chaise lounge in the dressing room."

* Girls Behind, Billingham Forum Theatre, Wednesday-Friday. Box Office: 01642-552663.