THE name is Lawson, Edna Lawson.

The North-East pensioner has gone undercover in true James Bond fashion - not to save the world from a madman, but to prevent the elderly being intimidated by high-pressure salesmen.

The keen amateur actress with the Westovian Theatre Society, in South Shields, was recruited by Yorkshire Television (YTV) programme-makers working on a consumer series.

The results of her secret work will be seen in Salesmen From Hell 2, on ITV tonight, at 8pm.

Her involvement began when a YTV researcher contacted Mrs Lawson, secretary of the Westovians, to ask if she could find actors in their 60s to appear in the programme.

"I said I'd do it, because I've been acting all my life. I'm in amateur operatics as well, and love acting," she said.

She spent three days in a semi-detached house, in Durham, playing a widowed pensioner, as salesmen from companies that had been the subject of viewers' complaints attempted to sell her a kitchen, walk-in bath and windows.

Secret cameras filmed the results and Mrs Lawson wore a hidden microphone to record conversations.

Programme-makers were hidden in the garage, watching the proceedings on TV monitors.

"They were ready if anything untoward happened or a salesman turned nasty," said Mrs Lawson.

"The salesmen stayed for hours. It was a bit gruelling. I had to be the opposite of what I am - quite timid and a woman who'd lost her husband, who did everything for her."

In real life, Mrs Lawson's husband, Russell, is alive and well. "He's used to all the acting I do, but thought this was quite a challenge for me," she said.

Mrs Lawson has appeared on television before, in The Gambling Man, one of the Tyne Tees Catherine Cookson adaptations.