SHE should be available on the NHS.

After a chat with Su Pollard, it’s impossible not to feel anything other than thoroughly cheered up - the former Hi-de-HI star is bubblier than a room full of jacuzzis.

Her performance as the scatty and lovable Peggy in the hugely popular BBC sitcom made her a household name but she’s enjoying showing off her mean side in a national tour of Annie.

Su is playing Miss Hannigan, the drunken old crow who runs the orphanage which has been our heroine's home for 11 years.

“I know she’s not considered the most nice minded character in tthe world but it’s something you can really get your teeth into. I said to the director, you know because she’s always drunk, I think I need to go and research my role. Can I have some money on expenses, to go out on a bender? It was just a bit of fun,” she jokes.

While it’s tempting to think of Miss Hannigan purely as an ogre in a skirt who rules her young charges with a rod of iron, Su thinks she isn’t totally unsympathetic.

“I think she shows her vulnerable side - she’s just desperate to love somebody. She would have loved to have had a husband but it just hasn’t worked out,” she says.

The pilot for Hi-de-Hi, the sitcom that made her a star, was broadcast on the Beeb 30 years ago this year, a fact that brings an audible gasp from Su. The show took us back to the holiday camps of the 1950s, to the days of knobbly knees contests and knotted handkerchiefs on the heads of men soaking up the sun. To the days when staying in a chalet, breathtaking basic by today’s standards, was something to get excited about.

Su says every member of the cast looks back on their time on the show with a grea deal of affection and rehearsals were a real hoot, with Perry and Croft’s dialogue reducing the entire ensemble to hysterics.

“We can look back at that era and we can honestly say it was one of the most fantastic times in our careers. The fun that we were having making the show and also knowing the fun the people were going to have watching it,” says Su, who believes a good sitcom will never stop being funny.

This Nottingham born actress could soon be “on holiday” again, because when we spoke she’d been in talks with the writer of the ITV sitcom, Benidorm. When she’s not working, she loves what she describes as long lunches, which are so leisurely they can last up to six hours. But you can forgive her this indulgence, as walking is also one of her great passions too.

“When I come to Manchester, I have two friends who live in Glossop and whenever I go there we go on these fantastic walks. My friend Roger is very keen on hill walking and he alerted me to this a few years ago. I remember saying to him, this is the worst day of my entire life because it’s really hard work going up these hills. But since then, I’ve really started to enjoy it,” she says. Rick Bowen *