THE role of a nymphomaniac is not one you might equate with prim and proper Jane Asher.

Cake-baker and expert housekeeper are the images that usually spring to mind when her name is mentioned.

But when she comes to Malvern in July, she will be stripping and cross-dressing with alacrity as the sex-mad wife in Joe Orton's What The Butler Saw.

"In general I do tend to play much more hard-edged, slightly neurotic, slightly nympho women, which doesn't worry me at all," she said. "Indeed, I've played some wonderful Fascists in my time and in a way, the less the roles are like me, the more fun they are to play."

Despite having a lot of strings to her bow, Ms Asher sees herself, ultimately, as an actress who does things on the side.

She said: "I've acted since I was a child. It was only when I had children that I started the cook thing. I've always enjoyed cookery and I used to make a lot of decorated cakes. I suppose that was my showbiz streak coming out. Then a friend said I should write a book but I didn't take that seriously because no one in the arts wrote books then. I wrote to dozens of publishers who turned me down and then one finally said let's do the book and it all took off."

Speaking about her saintly image, she said it was largely a lot of nonsense.

"I'm very disorganised, untidy and I have a lot of help in the home but I always say you could have a lot worse images than Miss Goody Two Shoes!"

What The Butler Saw is a comedy that pokes fun at sex, authority, family relationships and the world of psychoanalysis.

Dr Prentice, played by Michael Pennington, is a sex-obsessed psychiatrist trying to seduce a prospective secretary but he's frustrated by the arrival of his wife (Jane Asher), an over enthusiastic inspector and a dim-witted policeman.

The play comes to Malvern Theatres on Monday (July 2) and runs until Saturday, July 7.