I'd love to be in a cowboy film!'

Actor Barbara Flynn on wishing she had three lives, the 'unfair' world of show business and Wild West dreams

- TIM OGLETHORPE

Be yourself - and be unique. That's the advice of Barbara Flynn, one of the stars of BBC1's hugely successful crime drama Beyond Paradise. 'I believe that no woman should ever feel forced to wear the same clothes as anyone else, and when I talk to younger people I try and get them to be in love with their own individuality,' says the 76-year-old, Sussex-born actor and star of TV hits, such as Cracker and A Very Peculiar Practice. 'There's no point in trying to be like anyone else because they - the person you are trying to be like - is busy doing that. Your job is to be yourself, celebrate yourself - have the courage to not just follow the trend.'

Barbara practises what she preaches. She makes her own range of distinctive jewellery, including some eye-catchingly beautiful necklaces, wearing them in everyday life and also when playing her Beyond Paradise character Anne Lloyd.

Jewellery isn't the only connection between actor and character. Both are widows - Barbara lost her TV producer and science writer husband Jeremy Taylor to cancer in 2017 - and both have carried on their lives in a positive, determined manner.