She was the ex-wife from hell in Brookside. Now KAREN DRURY is playing a wife trying desperately to be loyal, writes Will Scott

ONE of the cinema's all-time greatest tearjerkers is being transported to the stage with a popular soap actor taking one of the lead roles.

Brief Encounter, originally a play by Noel Coward, is best remembered for director David Lean's brilliantly-crafted masterpiece for the cinema starring Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard.

Set in the winter of 1938, the plot examines the quiet desperation in an extra-marital love affair between two middle-class people over seven weekly meetings.

Leisure spoke to former Brookside star Karen Drury, who plays Laura (the role immortalised by Johnson) about Coward's play, Liverpool's favourite soap and getting her kit off.

Drury says she loves the original Lean film but disagrees the characters of Laura and Alec (played by London's Burning's Richard Walsh) are immoral in their feelings for each other.

"Laura doesn't do anything immoral, she's very innocent and I think that's what makes it moving: the fact that these people love each other.

"I am a big fan of the film and I read Noel Coward's diaries and autobiography. They were interesting because he talks about behaving well, not bursting into tears and not giving in to emotions.

"This is evident when they see each other for the last time although Laura does go off the rails at the end.

"The actual moment of I must go,' yes you must' is underneath. That is the challenge to be deeply moved and, on the other hand, have everything under control."

The actor's most famous role was as Suzanna Farnham, Max's estranged wife, in the popular Channel 4 scouse soap, Brookside, bursting onto the set nine years ago. She says she loved it especially the security of a regular income but felt the time was right to move on.

She said: "I was going to leave because I wanted to do something more dramatic. Then the producers came to me with a two-year storyline where they wanted me to go through the death of the children and the recovery from it. That was a wonderful opportunity.

"Then Max [Stephen Pinder] left for a year so I decided to leave again. But they asked me to stay another year so they could build up to Susanna's death."

The sophisticated star revealed she wants to play in a moody French film. Does that mean we'll be seeing the alluring lady in the buff?

"I've done that many times before actually but I don't think they want older women so much now," she laughed.

"And I've taken my clothes off in the theatre: in Lady Chatterley's Lover and a play at The Royal Court. I did it in a TV series too."

The blonde beauty, who has been doing a spot of power-walking around Greenwich Park to get in shape for the part, cut the interview short because she was looking for a restaurant to celebrate her birthday on Friday. Unfortunately she won't give her age away, nor does she tell secrets.

"No, I'm good at keeping secrets, she chuckled.

There is no secret to Brief Encounter it is an all-time classic. Why not jog your memory and pay a visit?

You can see Karen Drury in Brief Encounter, Fairfield Halls, Park Lane, Croydon, 7.45pm, Wed & Sat mat 2.30pm, £15-£7, 020 8688 9291