For Susan Hampshire, who returns to Malvern Theatres this month in Noel Coward's Relative Values, there are few places in the country that compare to Malvern.

"I know Malvern quite well," she said, "I first performed there in the Shaw Festival in, it must have been, the 1970s. It is breathtakingly beautiful. The countryside is wonderful.

"The quality of the audiences at Malvern is incredible. The new theatre is really lovely. To be honest, I'd rather be playing in Malvern than in the West End. It's the tops."

In Relative Values, the Earl of Marshwood announces that he is to marry a Hollywood actress, something his mother, played by Hampshire, cannot countenance.

"The play is deliciously incorrect - there's talk about servants, for instance," she said.

Despite a distinguished CV that includes three US Emmy awards for best actress in TV programmes such as the Forsyte Saga, Susan admitted that come the first night, which for this production is in Malvern, the fear is still there.

"I definitely get butterflies in the stomach on first night. As you get older, they get worse. As the show opens, you feel like 'I should be in hospital'. The first time in front of an audience is always the worst."

That she even performs a first night is testimony to her determination as she is dyslexic, making learning her lines hugely difficult.

"Learning lines is a great labour of love," she said. "If five pages takes an actor 30 minutes normally, it would take me at least 3 hours. I'm lucky I'm established now so people understand.

"When I started out, I was completely unrealistic. But I was already in the profession before I realised my handicap. I was a little bit naive but I was determined.

"I realised I had a problem when at Bognor Regis I was handed eight scripts and told to read them through over the weekend. I didn't even get halfway through the first one."

Susan is currently on TV screens in the third series of Monarch of the Glen, with there being "every possibility" that there will be a fourth installment in March.

After years as a "serious" actress performing Shakespeare and Ibsen, she has now decided to focus solely on more light-hearted pieces, with Monarch and Relative Values very much in that line.

She said: "I'm in the mood at the moment to only do things that have a feel-good factor. I don't want to do anything that's miserable any more.

"There's a very big market for light-hearted entertainment that's not banal. With what is going on in the world, I don't want to do something that makes people unhappy."

Compared with more cerebral pieces, comedies also have the advantage of bringing you closer to the public, she explained.

"With comedies, there is a very exciting exchange with the audience - you know very quickly if they are awake or not."

Relative Values runs from January 29 to February 2 and tickets are from £14 to £20 from the box office on 01684 892200.