Velvet-voiced Miriam Margolyes is a musical Duchess

As she settles, her eyes fix on someone standing just behind my left shoulder.

"Hello," exclaims the actor, in a voice like warm honey to the old lady standing behind me, who has stopped to give Margolyes an intense once-over.

"Hello," says the old lady, "who are you?" she asks and, before Margolyes has a chance to answer, the old lady helpfully adds: "I don't know who you are, but I know that I know you."

Margolyes is all beaming smiles and friendliness.

"Well, I'm an actor and you might have seen me

on television or films," Margolyes explains helpfully and without a hint of arrogance. "In fact, I'm in a show at the Crucible over the road called Me and My Girl. You must come see it."

The old lady appears, hilariously, to be more suspicious than impressed.

"I thought you were my next door neighbour," she tells Margolyes.

"Oh no, I'm much fatter than her. Do come see the show."

On her way out the old lady scrutinises the actor again, appearing to wonder if this plump, grey-haired woman really is an actor. Does this happen as much as one suspects?

"Oh yes, it happens all the time, especially here in Sheffield. People are so friendly," says Margolyes. "That said, people are generally very friendly when they come up to me anyway. Maybe it's because I've made them laugh – that tends to make people quite nice towards you."

So she's never annoyed she can't enjoy anonimity?

"Absolutely not. I passionately believe that we're here for the audience, they are the reason we're here. I think it's very silly when actors are a bit grand, I really can't stand that."

A little probing reveals Margolyes isn't always as chirpy as she was with the old lady who stopped in the Sheffield restaurant.

"Sometimes people can be crass. Once I was at Wembley, going to see Dolly Parton and a man stood in front of me and shouted over to his wife: 'Joyce, there's a woman here I think I know'.

"He was standing right in front of me. I told him that he was very rude and you

don't speak to people like that," she says and reveals a hard streak and the reason why director Anna Mackmin wanted the larger-than-life actor to play the part of The Duchess in Stephen Fry's version of Me and My Girl.

Despite the description

of herself as "amusical", unable to sing or dance, director Mackmin couldn't think of a better actor to

play the part of The

Duchess.

"I thought if she was willing to give it a go, I should," she says. "The Duchess is described as a ghastly old trout – that covers it. She's an aristocrat, a snob, insensitive and egotistical. Very like me, I think."

From the picture, you're bound to recognise Margolyes, even though given the eclectic nature and enormous size of her CV, you might, like the old lady in Sheffield, not be entirely sure why.

At Cambridge she was involved with the famous Footlights group, although she had an unhappy time. She was there at the same time as John Cleese and Graham Chapman.

"In those days you were a tolerated guest as a

woman. It was only when Germaine Greer and Emma Thompson came along when women actually became involved and regarded as equals," says the actor who is now 69.

When she left Cambridge, it was with an idea of making a life as an actress, but with little plan.

A BBC radio interview landed her a training contract and set into motion a vocal acting career that has seen her provide voices for Manikin Cigars, the Cadbury's

Caramel bunny and the voice of Mama in the current Dolmio adverts.

She won a BAFTA in 1994 for her role as Mrs Mingott in The Age of Innocence, played Miss Crawley in the BBC's Vanity Fair TV series, and is set to reprise her role as Professor Pomona Sprout in the upcoming final of the Harry Potter films.

These days she is most recognised for her work in the Potter films, and she says that it pleases her because "I was only in the second one, so I suppose I made an impression."

For now, she is totally focussed on Me and My Girl.The musical was written by Douglas Furber and L Arthur Rose with music by Noel Gay and was performed in the West End in 1937.

With songs including Leaning on the Lamp Post, The Sun Has Got His Hat On and The Lambeth Walk, the musical was a hit and was

revived with a new book by Stephen Fry in 1984 –

the script being used for the Sheffield production. Margolyes is having the time of her life rehearsing the show, she says.

"I think the great thing about the show is that it is utterly transformational. It leaves you with the idea that anything and everything can change and I think that is the most optimistic thought anyone can have," she says. "I think it is quite a serious responsibility to get out of London and do your bit to remind people of the pleasures of theatre.

"I couldn't live without it – we're having Mondays off and I will be using that day to go to theatre, to nip up to Leeds and see what's on and get around the rest of the place as well," she says. "Sheffield is on the map theatrically, definitely. It's one of those places where people want to work.

"When Daniel (Evans, Sheffield's current artistic director) took over I wrote to him to say, 'please get me up there'. I think Sheffield is probably at the top of the regional theatres in the country."

Now that she is in Sheffield, and people mistake her for a next door neighbour, is that an opinion that is unchanged?

"Oh, it's all lovely. The people, the theatre, the show. I'm having a wonderful time."

Me and My Girl, Sheffield Crucible, to January 29. 0114 2496000.

GLITTERING CAREER

Miriam Margolyes was born in Oxford in 1941 and went to Newnham College, Cambridge.

Voice work: Audio books include Oliver Twist, Great Expectations and The Queen And I.

Awards: 1989: LA Critics Circle Award for Flora Finching in Little Dorritt. 1993: BAFTA, Best Supporting Actress for The Age of Innocence. 2001: Order of the British Empire for Services to Drama.

Other notable roles: Nurse in Baz Luhrmann's Romeo and Juliet, several roles in Blackadder I, II and III, Professor Sprout in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.