PH Una is currently playing in the Donmar’s 30th anniversary revival of Les Liaisons Dangereuses

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Una Stubbs and I spend a lot of time talking about men we like a lot; fancy, even. They include Dominic West, Benedict Cumberbatch, Martin Freeman, Mark Gatiss and Len Goodman. The difference is, while I get to watch them on the box , she has the pleasure of working with them. She is currently playing West’s aunt in the Donmar’s 30th anniversary revival of Les Liaisons Dangereuses, will be back on small screens with Cumberbatch and Freeman in the Gatiss co-written Sherlock, and made a TV pilot with Goodman. It seems churlish to write that Una is 78, especially as she looks as trim and bird-like as she did as a young dancer, and in conversation so friendly and confidential that you long to befriend her rather than be mothered by her. No wonder that she is still so much in demand whilst some other actresses of her generation have genteely faded away.

I’ve been very lucky to have a career with such longevity, and I have jumped over lots of fences Una Stubbs

In Les Liaisons, a play about seduction and revenge in 18th century France, she uses her natural warmth to play matriarch Madame de Rosemonde. “She’s wise, and one of the kinder people in the play,” she explains. “Although I do love to play a bitch like the Duchess of Olivarez in Don Carlos (in Michael Grandage’s 2005 production), and of course, Aunt Sally in Worzel Gummidge. ‘I’ve been very lucky to have a career with such longevity, and I have jumped over lots of fences” she says, “but the dancing has helped.” When I ask where she trained as a dancer, she replies “La Roche. Slough”, with a well-honed comedy pause. “I didn’t really get educated, I was taught to read and write and dance, and that was about it. I left school at 15, and started work in the chorus.”

PH Una with Benedict Cumberbatch in Sherlock

She was a successful professional dancer in TV, cabaret and revue for many years, and made her movie debut in the Cliff Richard movie Summer Holiday in 1963. But it was her appearance as Alf Garnett’s daughter Rita in Till Death Us Do Part two years later that was a real breakthrough for Una. “I was surprised to get the role, but then again, I’m always surprised to get a role,” she laughs. “It was a straight step away from me being a dancer.” Alf was played by Warren Mitchell, who died last month, and Una remembers him as tough but paternal in real life. “It was no secret that he was an irascible person, but only in order to get the job right. He didn’t put up with people not studying their lines, especially has he had to learn the equivalent of a play a week as Johnny Speight’s scripts were so wordy and topical, and he needed all the help he could get and sometimes didn’t. “Because the rest of the cast only had a few lines, there was a lot of waiting around for us, and sometimes I’d just be daydreaming of getting home to my children. But Warren was amazing and really pushed me, looked after me and was wonderful to me.”

PH Una in Till Death Us Do Part

However, it’s her Till Death screen mother, Else, played by Dandy Nichols, that Una says was a greater influence on her acting career. “She was just incredible, and so astute with her timing,” Una remembers. “When her camera light came on, she was just there, and she was a great educator for me. “When she was older, I was the only close person around her as she had no siblings and most of her contemporaries had gone, so the hospital treated me like her daughter and kept me informed as to what was happening. It was nice that I was able to be there for her.” Una also loved working with the other sparky older actresses in Till Death, including Irene Handl and Patricia Hayes. Unlike these ladies, Una’s television career has not involved playing old women in headscarves and raincoats. She is well-known to a whole new young generation of fans as Mrs Hudson, landlady of the flat at 221b Baker Street occupied by Sherlock Holmes and John Watson. Like Una, Martha Hudson used to be a dancer, although Martha was, delightfully, one of the ‘exotic’ variety, and Una adores playing her.

PH 'I’ve been very lucky to have a career with such longevity'

“I can’t describe how lucky I feel to be in Sherlock, and how enjoyable it is to make for all of us,” she explains. “You couldn’t have a nicer group of boys – Mark (Gatiss) and Andrew (Scott) and Stephen (Moffatt), as well as Benedict and Martin (Cumberbatch and Freeman). “They are really great, and treat me like one of the boys, which is what I prefer. They’re lovely, funny, and send each other and me up, and expect me to come back with a joke.” The Sherlock storyline for the New Year is, as ever, a closely-guarded secret, and Una can only reveal that the story is “magical”, and the costumes are fantastic. She has great admiration for Cumberbatch and Freeman, two international movie stars who regularly return to the small screen to make Sherlock.