'Allo 'Allo! star Vicki Michelle chats to Weekend about her new show Hormonal Housewives

She's been making us giggle since her days playing saucy waitress Yvette Carte-Blanche in classic British sitcom 'Allo 'Allo!.

Now the seasoned performer is taking to the stage to make us laugh out loud in the no-holds-barred show Hormonal Housewives.

The challenges of modern womanhood are sliced, diced and put to rights by the vivacious cast in this 'witty, topical, rude and extremely funny' three hander, which also stars Josephine Partridge and co-writer Julie Coombe.

And Essex-born Vicki told Weekend she fell in love with the script as soon as she read it.

"It's a very funny script and I was laughing out loud as I was reading it. We've just had the first read through in rehearsals and I was giggling again as I was reading.

"I think the women in the audience will be able to relate to it and will being saying 'that's me' or 'that's what I do'.

"It's a funny, cheeky, feel-good show," adds the 68-year-old.

Written by Coombe and John MacIsaac, Hormonal Housewives made its debut in 2012,toured again 2013 and now the script has been updated for 2019 to reflect the latest developments in communication, social media, going to the gym, and even hair.

No subject is taboo for the three women who chat away about everything from weight gain, mood swings, electrolysis, men and sex to working out, staying in, going out and celebrity gossip.

Motherhood is also an important and timely topic being covered in the show with tomorrow being Mother's Day. "We talk about teenagers, homework, hormones, and there’s a scene where we enact their roles which is actually hilarious. We talk about how children are under tremendous peer pressure from social media and we address issues parents have in a comedic way. I think audiences will relate to a lot of what we’re talking about onstage and hopefully have a laugh while they’re relating," explains Vicki.

She is married to producer husband Graham and has a 29-year-old daughter named Louise. "When I was a young mum and doing acting jobs in theatres all over the place I used to take Louise everywhere with me – she even came to Australia when we took the ‘Allo ‘Allo! stage show there. There was me and my mum and little Louise on that long long flight and when we arrived at the other end there was a problem with our paperwork and they weren’t going to let Louise in.

"In fact they took us into an interrogation room and said they’d have to send her back to Britain on the next flight – she was six weeks old at the time and I had to explain they’d have to find someone else to breast feed her. It made the front page of the local paper, you can imagine how scary that was. I think it must have been in the days before babies had to have their own passports.

"Then when I was doing panto around the UK she even appeared onstage with me in Snow White – I was the Witch and she came on as Little Witch!," she tells Weekend.

Vicki followed in the footsteps of her own mother who was also a trained actress. "My mother was fabulous – she only died recently – she had four daughters and grand children and she was really important to all of us. She was in the business too; she’d trained at LAMDA and was an accomplished pianist; she was in the 1949 romantic film The Glass Mountain but gave up acting when she became pregnant with me. We four girls always sang, went to ballet classes, did amateur panto. She was very beautiful, strong, kind and generous and the best mother in the world – she said if you can’t find anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all – and she stood by that. I don’t think I ever heard her say a nasty word about anyone," she says.

Vicki, who has been a regular cast member of Emmerdale and Doctors says her Hormonal Housewives character is 'loosely based' on herself.

"Julie’s done an amazing job of basing each character on each of us as much as possible.

"For instance my character and I both love a glass of fizz, we adore talking to our female friends and obviously a glass of wine or fizz makes the experience even more enjoyable.

"I also share some experiences with my character in terms of family so it’s lovely to be able to bring some of myself to the stage," she explains.

The actress, who also presents her own weekly radio show Vix Mix on Phoenix 98FM in Essex, says she hopes the show appeals to both women and men.

"Women will be able to relate completely to the different characters and men will be able to learn something and find out what we talk about when they aren't there.

"You know what they say - when women get together men get scared!," explains Vicki.

But the she warned any male members of the audience that may need to be a little thick-skinned.

"It's not cruel at all, it's very tongue in cheek, but yes the men may get picked on," admits Vicki.

One of the scenes she's looking forward to bringing to life is guaranteed to make us chuckle, she says.

"The waxing scene is going to be hysterical. Julie and I try and encourage Josephine to get back on the dating scene; she’s newly divorced and a bit hesitant. There’s a whole discussion about how much excess hair to wax – I don’t want to give too much away but I get to play the ‘waxer’," she tells us.

Vicki is best known for her role as glamorous waitress Yvette in 'Allo 'Allo!, which ran for 10 years between 1982 and 1992.

The show has stood the test of time and she says it's still winning new legions of fans especially among the younger generations.

"I was at Film and Comic Con in Cardiff and it was great. There was a little boy dressed as René and he gave me a rose, which was lovely.

"A dad with a three-year-old said he was worried about leaving him in the other room while he was cooking in the kitchen but he found he would sit happily in front of 'Allo 'Allo!

"People still love it and it's still making them laugh. There are new kids being brought up watching it," Vicki tells us.

Since 'Allo 'Allo! was on our screens, she's become a familiar face on stage starring in roles including Ruth in Ayckbourn’s Round and Round the Garden and Table Manners, Jacqueline in Don’t Dress for Dinner, Maxine in Stepping Out, Glenda in The Tart and the Vicar’s Wife, Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest and Lynnie in Hello Norma Jeane as well as numerous roles in classic Cooney farces.

An acclaimed musical performer, the mother of one has also entertained audiences in Miss Hannigan in Annie, Lady Raeburn and Asphynxia in Salad Days, Miss Mona in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas and Vi Collins in Stop Dreamin’.

But in 2014 she went outside her comfort zone to travel Down Under to brave the jingle in I'm A Celebrity… Get Me Out.

She finished an impressive seventh on the series appearing alongside Melanie Sykes, Tinchy Stryder and Carl Fogarty amongst others.

But she admits she nearly didn't make it to Australia after fearing she had made the wrong decision to sign up the television show.

"I did get cold feet and said to my daughter Louise 'I don't know if I can do it' but I had a great time.

"It really teaches you to know what's important in life and although I knew I was brave and I was braver than I ever thought I could be," says Vicki who took part in 'The Deadly Dunker' bushtucker trial with Michael Buerk , winning seven stars.

She is also a experienced pantomime performer and plans to return to the stage as the Evil Queen in Snow White this Christmas.

"That's the joy of being an actress - there's that a scary time when you're not working but you never know what's going to happen and what opportunities you're going to have. It's fantastic," says Vicki.

But before she can think about panto she has the mammoth Hormonal Housewives tour, which kicked-off last night (29th) and runs through to the end of June.

"It’s so great to be in a script that you know is funny and that the audience is going to love. There’s nothing better than laughter to cure everything – so hopefully we’re going to laugh on stage, the audience are going to have a laugh and we’ll still be laughing when we have a glass of wine together after the show!," she says.

*Hormonal Housewives plays at Telford, Oakengates Theatre on April 4 (www.theplacetelford.com), Brierley Hill Civic Hall on April 5 ( www.bhillcivic.co.uk) and Lichfield Garrick Theatre on June 15 (www.lichfieldgarrick.com).

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