Murder, marrows and the Mills dynasty

Actress Susie Blake on her latest whodunnit role, the joys of having an allotment, her famous family ties... and playing Victoria Wood's cutting TV continuity announcer

- Alison James

I'M TALKING rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb with actress Susie Blake. Not the thespian lingo originally coined in 19th-century London theatres, courtesy of Victorian luvvie Charles Kean, but actual rhubarb. The veg. In addition to being a star of stage and the small screen, Susie, you see, is a proud allotmenteer.

"At the moment, it's mostly raspberries, blackberries, apples, plums, gooseberries, and, yes, rhubarb," she enthuses.

"It's produce that can look after itself and go on and on. I've also got courgettes, marrows, chard, beans and cauliflower but they need a bit of love and attention. They're the items I worry about when I'm on tour."

And she's about to hit the theatrical road for quite a while.

Susie found fame in the 1980s playing a snooty TV continuity announcer in Victoria Wood As Seen On TV, known for delivering devastating lines like:

"We'd like to apologise to viewers in the North it must be awful for them."

She then played Bev Unwin in Coronation Street and uptight Hilary Nicholson in Mrs Brown's Boys. But in recent years she has carved out a niche for herself in stage whodunnits.

Her latest role is monstrous matriarch Shirley in the new Torben Betts mystery Murder At Midnight, a play that incorporates plenty of laughs alongside the usual cloak-and-dagger intrigue.

"It's very fast moving and fabulously funny with lots of surprises. We Brits love our murder mysteries, don't we?" she smiles. "And especially when life is rather tough as it is now. I think that's because for a couple of hours you can step out of what's happening in the real world and you know that by the end of the play you'll get a resolution. Again, not something that usually happens in real life!"