Kate O' Mara has made a career out of her sultry looks but now loves nothing better than a good, old fashioned murder mystery, as she tells Viv Hardwick

GRACEFULLY ageing Kate O'Mara admits that facing an aggressive drunk in the street late at night has made her acutely aware of the apparently more genteel days of the 1950s portrayed in the Agatha Christie play, The Hollow.

Although you can point to the fact it's a murder mystery, she admits to being a fan of those days when society seemed to be safer. "Although you may say that at least people aren't so hypocritical any more, we've lost the ability to tell the difference between right and wrong," the 65-year-old says.

"When I'm out late at night I run for my life most of the time, particularly coming out of a theatre in the dark. Last week we were in Edinburgh and my digs were about 20 minutes walk and I thought 'oh, I'll be all right'. I made sure my purse was completely hidden and it was all right every night except one when a drunk came towards me and tried to attack me, so I really had to run for it. It was on a main street, brightly-lit and you end up thinking, bugger this, I don't see why I should lead my life being afraid to go for a walk."

O'Mara is an ideal acting candidate for taking Agatha Christie's work on tour. Arch-eyebrowed, aristocratic, sultry and with that air of dangerous mystery, the actress has decorated a host of TV series.

In The Hollow she plays Lady Angkatell who, like the rest of the cast, soon has a motive for murder. Tony Britton, Tracey Childs, Gary Mavers, Ben Nealon, Chloe Newsome and Fiona Dolman make up the rest of a thumping good cast who launch the first of impresario Bill Kenwright's series of Christie murder mysteries which are set to tour the UK.

Of Lady Angkatell, she says: "She's a nice character but fairly potty and at the same time, she's quite ruthless."

On murder mysteries O'Mara adds: "You can see these plays and films until you're blue in the face but you never remember whodunit. I'd seen The Hollow before when my sister was in it about 12 years ago and I saw it on television recently but when I got the script I didn't remember a word of it, not a word and I certainly couldn't recall whodunit. That's the great thing - the plots are so complicated that the mystery remains."

Despite being a regular in touring theatre, O'Mara reveals its at least 15 years since she last played Billingham in Anthony And Cleopatra. "But I go back to 1959, so that's still quite recent," she jokes.

"Once I was always touring to Billingham and then it seemed to stop," adds O'Mara, who takes a keen interest in regional venues because she runs her own company.

Summing up the appeal of the play, O'Mara says: "You're not going to get sworn at, there's no nudity, children love it and grandmas love it, so it is something for everyone." She enjoys the fact that most of the cast are suspects when Dr John Cristow is murdered during a country house weekend.

The actress is famed for creating TV's headstrong leading ladies in The Brothers (Jane Maxwell), Triangle (Katherine Laker) and Howard's Way (Laura Wilde) before adding scheming Caress Morrell in US soap opera Dynasty and Jackie Stone in Absolutely Fabulous. In recent years there has been wheelchair-bound madam Virginia O'Kane in ITV1's Bad Girls and a foray into five's soap Family Affairs - which she admits was 'very odd and left me rather alarmed'.

Her current ambitions are to play Miss Marple on stage and to join the growing number of veteran actors in ITV1's Midsomer Murders.

"I saw Margaret Lockwood play her years ago and it's something I want to do, but I'll have to wait and see if I'm asked. I saw Margaret once in a play and I absolutely adored her and I saw her afterwards and said 'God, you were so good' and she said 'Oh, thank you so much' and she kissed my hands because I think anyone ever told her she was good on stage," she says.

"One of the directors of Midsomer Murders came to see The Hollow and I said 'c'mon then, when am I going to be in the series?' Well, everyone else has done it and she could only say 'No'. So I'm going to pester her," O'Mara laughs.

Early in her career she made a solid living as an exotic-looking temptress and recently received a letter from Elstree Studios who are after any stories about Roger Moore from the days she appeared with him in The Saint.

"I remember thinking that in one I played an Italian racing driver and in another I was a French countess and then a Swiss cook. There were other series like Jason King, Department S, The Avengers, The Protectors, The Persuaders and The Champions where, each week, they'd need a blonde and a brunette or a red-head and a brunette as the female characters. So, as you say, someone like me was absolutely essential.

"It was wonderful, but they don't make series like that any more. Not gritty reality all the time, but pure escapism."

l The Hollow runs at Billingham's Forum Theatre from tonight until Saturday. Box Office: (01642) 552663