From dealing with alcohol addiction to earning a 'degree in men’, Margi Clarke brings a lot to the table for her starring role in comedy Hormonal Housewives. Chris Price chatted with her.

With rollers in her hair and lippy in her hand, Margi Clarke still oozes that playful spirit becoming of all proper Liverpool lasses.

It is that sense of fun which she brings to her leading role in Hormonal Housewives, a comedy following three women as they battle weight gain, mood swings, stretch marks and just about everything else.

Dubbed the Queen of Liverpool by the godfather of punk Malcolm McLaren – although she sees herself more as “the leading peasant” – there was some sadness as the ex-Coronation Street star began to talk about her theatrical comeback.

She was only offered the part in January after her former Weatherfield co-star Beverley Callard was forced to pull out due to ill health.

“It was sad on one level because I am a friend of Beverley’s and she is not very well at the minute, but on the other hand I was really pleased to be offered the part,” she said.

“I had a visit from the good fairy. I was signing on not so long ago.”

Her irreverent quip refers to a very bleak phase of her life, when she was said to be drinking at least two bottles of wine a day after the death of her mother. She knows bagging this role is a sign of her bouncing back.

“My life has been like a big dipper” said Margi. “It has always been like that for me. I’m really grateful to the life force that I’m still here.

“I had a period in my life where I was living a dangerous lifestyle. I used to have problems with drink and I dabbled in this, that and the other. I was delivered to the shores of the menopause with addictions to dangerous stuff.

“If my mum had been there it never would have happened. Your mum keeps you in check and when I look back on it, I feel sorry for the person I was.

“I no longer drink although I’m still on the ciggies – I’ve not been able to give them up just yet. Now when I see other people suffering and getting off their heads I feel like its an opportunity to watch the play I used to star in.

“You learn as you get older. People think they are getting high, but they’re actually getting sick.”

For a woman who admits she left school aged 15 without an O-level to her name but “a degree in men”, Margi comes across as a deep thinker. She says she deeply respects the men who have influenced her life, from her brother Frank, who wrote the film Letter to Brezhnev which gave her a career breakthrough, to her ex-husband, the artist Jamie Reid, who introduced her to the National Gallery and is father to her daughter Rowan.

It is this wisdom which made her perfect for Hormonal Housewives. A sell-out hit across Scotland, it is embarking on its first UK tour in 2012, tackling the challenges of a woman’s life, always with tongue firmly in cheek.

“The play follows the breadth of female experience, like the menopause and all the things you go through,” said Margi, 58.

“It is like being a teenager again. You get to that stage in life where your hormones are running around like a teenager’s, except at that time you were getting better looking and now you are not.”

Film role Margi’s favourite

When asked if she had a favourite moment of her career, Margi went all the way back to her breakthrough as Theresa in Letter to Brezhnev.

In the film she plays one of two working class Liverpool girls who meet two Russian sailors. Released in 1985, the comedy became an international hit, despite having a budget of just £50,000.

“It really reflected the time,” she said. “In them days the powers that be were tearing Russia to bits. They were saying Russians were not human, which is what we are doing today with places like Iran and Syria.

“That film put a stop to that. It showed they were people. I got to sleep with the Russians before Margaret Thatcher did. Art always gets there before science. Your imagination gets somewhere first and then science proves it.

“You can achieve so much with art and I’m here to encourage people to remember who they are.”

Hormonal Housewives, starring Margi Clarke, comes to Tunbridge Wells’ Assembly Hall Theatre on Wednesday, March 14. Tickets £20. Box office 01892 530613. It visits Bromley’s Churchill Theatre on Sunday, April 22. Tickets £18 to £22. Box office 0844 871 7627.