WITH her natural comic timing and distinctive Welsh vocals, Ruth Madoc is always a clamorous, colourful figure on stage or screen – and she has no notion of fading into the shadows now she's "nearly 74".
The septuagenarian actress, best known for her hilarious, long-running role in 1980s TV comedy Hi-De-Hi! as 'Chief Yellow Coat' Gladys Pugh, showed younger co-stars that stamina is not age-related when she returned to the Grand Opera House stage to star in The Wedding Singer this week.
Part of a 26-date UK tour based on the 1998 hit film of the same name, the musical – set to an energetic soundtrack of the 80s with huge hair, questionable fashion and 'greed is good' philosophy – is an excuse to let your hair down and 'party likes its 1985', says Madoc, who plays grandmother to the central character played by theatre star Jon Robyns (Avenue Q, Legally Blonde and Les Miserables).
"I do a rap on stage and it's great fun," she enthuses in a chat on her mobile, during which there is a mumble-filled hiatus as jaywalkers suddenly step in front of the car being driven by her husband in Southampton.
They are en route to the theatre where The Wedding Singer is drawing in the crowds on its second stop on the tour and, after a Gladys Pugh-like moment when I can hear her scolding the culprits, we are back to business, discussing the "life-affirming" role of Grandma Rosie.
She plays grandmother to Robbie Hart and helps direct the course of true love for her jilted grandson while interacting with the show's other main characters – Ray Quinn (Dancing on Ice), Casssie Compton (X-Factor) and Roxanne Pallett (Emmerdale).
Madoc, a grandmother herself (she has five grandchildren), fits effortlessly into the role, relishing the matchmaker duties with which she is charged when Robyns's character gets dumped at the altar but becomes distracted by a potential new love interest who, unfortunately, has a problematic fiance all of her own...
"It's all about love, of course it's about love and finding the right love in the end," she gushes. "I am a true believer in love and I don't think it's a coincidence at all that Robbie and Julia's names sound remarkably like those of Romeo and Juliet.
"The musical only uses two songs from the Adam Sandler film and the rest is original music. It is a fantastic show with a great cast and will make you laugh as well as dance. I may be nearly 74, but once that music starts, it's like a spark to my system.
"I am very lucky that I have very good stamina anyway, but the music is a wonderful fillip, giving me the energy I need to perform."
After a career spanning 60 years of television, film and theatre, she is at the stage now where she can "pick and choose" her roles, but, ever a realist, thinks her days of playing Dorothy Brook in 42nd Street are probably over.
"I think 42nd Street was my favourite theatre show of them all, but I do still love comedy and I loved doing Benidorm and Little Britain with David Walliams and Matt Lucas," says the RADA-trained actress who still lives "up a mountain" in south Wales and is proud to speak her native tongue – she came second in a reality television programme in 2004 in which contestants were sent on an intensive course in the Welsh language.
She is still content today to be recognised by that quavering valleys cadence, despite having enjoyed a varied acting career, appearing in everything from radio plays and panto, to a UK theatre tour of Annie (Miss Hannigan), television drama, Casualty; films Very Annie Mary and Fiddler on the Roof, as well as a famed 80s television advert for Cadbury's Wispa.
Theatre, however, remains her first love, but Madoc is careful to give due credit to Hi-De-Hi which was "fabulous TV" and which propelled her – and her accent – to almost instant stardom.
"Hi-De-Hi opened many doors for me and I spent nine years of my life as Gladys Pugh, so she will always be part of me," says Madoc. "I knew Gladys so well because I’d met women like her while growing up in south Wales. "She was a woman of her time – like two tonnes of nutty slack rolling down the Welsh valleys."
:: The Wedding Singer runs at the Grand Opera House, Belfast, until Saturday. For bookings, visit www.goh.co.uk
