STEPHANIE Cole’s current role as Professor Higgins’ mother in Chichester Festival Theatre’s production of Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion is just another example of the expansively eclectic career this much-loved British actress has had, spanning some 50 years on the stage.

Aficionados of Salisbury Playhouse will probably already know that Stephanie spent three years (from 1964 to 1967) in Salisbury, as a member of the repertory company under Reggie Salberg.

“Those were three very happy years,” she tells me, “it was a wonderfully-run theatre by Reggie Salberg, a legend in the theatre world. I was very, very lucky.”

During this time Stephanie appeared in 55 productions in Salisbury, ranging from Margery the Cook in Dick Whittington, Miss Marple in Murder at the Vicarage to Mrs Malaprop in Sheridan’s The Rivals and in Old Time Music Hall.

“It was the most amazing training ground and I worked with all sorts of people, many of whom are still in the theatre world today. There are so many memories, it would be impossible to pluck one from the whole,” she adds.

Asking Stephanie to reflect on her personal highlights from her long and successful career, she says: “In television, I loved playing Muriel in Soldiering On, one of Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads, and being in A Bit of a Do, but Tenko was huge for me. It gave me wonderful lifelong friends. My theatre highlights include A Passionate Woman at the Comedy Theatre which I loved doing, my favourite thing in the West End. I love doing radio, and Poetry Please is one of my favourites.”

Salisbury audiences will get a chance to hear Stephanie talk about her long career as she is visiting the city on Sunday, September 26 in conversation with Playhouse artistic director, Philip Wilson, who she praises: “Actors like coming to Salisbury. Philip is very highly thought of by actors. He has moved the Playhouse up into another category. It is up there with the Crucible in Sheffield and Royal Exchange, Manchester. He is a gem.”