CLAIRE Worboys talks passionately about her job as an actress - it is all she ever wanted from an early age.

Miss Worboys recounts the time at school she announced she wanted to be a singer and the class burst out in laughter.

''I was so embarrassed I just wanted to crawl under a desk and die,'' she said.

''On the whole, though, most people and my parents have encouraged me to do what I want to do which is lucky.''

The 31-year-old, who has just finished the lead role in Stourport Operatic Society's production of My Fair Lady, said she would never consider being anything else but an actress despite the irregularity of the work.

She said: ''There is nothing like being on stage and entertaining people."

She added: ''The only downside is that work is difficult to find because there are so many actors about in the same boat.''

The former King Charles I High School student, who was born in Kidderminster, has already risen through the acting ranks and has starred in the musical Barnum on a nationwide tour.

She began her acting career at school in My Fair Lady and Oklahoma!

She went on to join Stourport Operatic Society but quickly decided she would have to go out into the world and hunt fame.

''I wanted to be discovered but knew I would have go out and grab success,'' she said.

Miss Worboys had three years of drama school before her first major role as Jane Eyre at the Palace Theatre in Redditch.

She has since gone on to act in dramas such as Dangerfield and Get Well Soon and has also joined the band Indian Summer and played in front of 35,000 people in Birmingham last year.

One of her next projects could see her star with Sean Connery in a film next year.

Miss Worboys said: ''We have been working on a film project which it is hoped will be a cinema release. We are hoping Sean Connery will play my father!''

The artistic bent seems to run in the family as Claire's sister, Beverley, a singer, is touring at present in the Pirates of Penzance.

''Our mother is a big fan of all the MGM musicals so I guess we've got our love of performing from that.''

Miss Worboys, who is engaged to fellow actor Jonathan Darby, still has many ambitions to fulfill.

''I desperately want to break into films so I am pinning all my hopes on this film project,'' she said. I would love to do Les Miserables and also to work with Anthony Hopkins - he is just stunning.''

She added: ''Acting can be a very frustrating business - but I wouldn't want it any another way. I love what I do.''