Singer and actress Lyn Paul must like playing Mrs Johnstone in the smash hit musical Blood Brothers – she keeps coming back for more.

The singer and actress, who rose to fame with the New Seekers singing I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing, which Coca-Cola adopted, first played the role in 1997, then again in 2012 and now joins the show again as it comes to Dartford's Orchard Theatre.

Willy Russell's hugely successful show tells the moving story of twin boys separated at birth, only to be reunited by a twist of fate and a mother’s haunting secret.

Joining Blood Brothers again for you must be like greeting an old friend.

It certainly is! Oh my goodness, it’s two and a half years since I last did it, so yes, it is like greeting an old friend, absolutely – but terrifying at the same time!

Terrifying? You must know the part in your sleep now!

Strangely enough, I was lying in bed the other night going through the opening song and I reached one part, but for the life of me couldn’t remember the rest of it, and I had to get up and go downstairs to get the script and go through it. At 4 in the morning! So it’s playing on my mind obviously.

You played Mrs Johnstone from 1997 to 2000, then again in 2008 and again in 2012 for the final two weeks of its West End run – is it your ultimate role?

Without a shadow of a doubt – Mrs J is just me. Everything that she’s going through I feel, the way Willy Russell has written it is so easy to get over to an audience as it’s actually written as you would speak. Sometimes, when people write a script, you look at it and think, “well, that’s not how I would say it”. But this is so perfectly written and so easy, it just flows, and I just feel that Mrs J is me, so it makes it very easy to play.

No doubt a huge factor when accepting the role again for the 2016 tour?

Absolutely. And also, because of Bill Kenwright. When I first played Mrs J, I was doing cabaret and he took me away from all that. I wrote to Bill and asked him if he would consider me for the role of Mrs J, he sent me a letter back by return post. I’d never acted and I thought, “oh my god, I can’t do this!” But Bill showed so much faith in me that I will always go back. He’s only got to click his fingers and I’ll be straight in.

So that letter changed your life?

Oh yes, absolutely. I didn’t know Bill but I knew Carl Wayne, who was the Narrator, and he came to see me in a cabaret show and said “you know, you should go and audition for Mrs Johnstone.” I said, “I can’t, I don’t act” But he said I should give it a go. So I discussed it with my mum and she said, “Oh Bill Kenwright, he’s a very nice man”. I said, “how do you know, you’ve never met him”, and she said, “I’ve seen him interviewed and he’s a very nice man, write to him!” Typical northern mum! So I wrote and said “would you consider seeing me for the role of Mrs J, I’m not Liverpudlian but I can get into the accent”, and I got a return letter saying, “don’t worry about the Liverpudlian accent love, we’ll sort that, you don’t need one, you’re a Northerner.” It gave me a new career.

Blood Brothers is a very moving show, have you come across fans who have said it has touched their lives?

I got a letter once from a woman who had a son in jail, and she said it was the only time she’d ever seen anybody portray on stage a jail sequence that is exactly as it is. And she said she cried and cried. Everyone’s gone through highs and lows and a lot of what Mrs J’s gone through. And Mrs Lyons. And Mickey and Eddie.

DETAILS

Blood Brothers comes to the Orchard Theatre in Dartford on Monday, November 21, to Saturday, November 26. For tickets from £20.50, call 01322 220000 or visit orchardtheatre.co.uk