JOANNE CLIFTON STARRING IN FAWLTY TOWERS SHOW AND FOR ONCE SHE'S NOT DANCING

"THIS is very different from what I normally do," said dancer and singer Joanne Clifton of her latest role in the touring production of Fawlty Towers.

- By DEBORAH HALL

"I've been a green, farting ogre on stage [Princess Fiona in Shrek The Musical] and a vampiresque Morticia [in The Addams Family]."There's no dancing, no singing and my character doesn't have any funny lines. I am really, really posh British, with a bit of an American twang; I'm the only serious one in it, to be fair."

Joanne is playing Polly, a part that Connie Booth made her own in the original hit TV series that ran in 1975 and 1979. Joanne studied replays of Connie in the role very closely, to get “her Polly” down to a tee and so as not to disappoint audiences who are so well-acquainted with the comedy, if the packed houses Fawlty Towers - The Play has already played to are anything to go by.

"There's so much fandom for it," she said, "and people still know and love the lines. People are saying the lines before we have even said them.