TELEVISION and theatre favourite Belinda Lang has stepped in to take over the lead role in a show coming to Bromley's Churchill Theatre next week because Maureen Lipman was forced to pull out when her husband fell ill.

But the Churchill's loss is also the Churchill's gain because, in football terms, it is like losing Zinedine Zidane to injury and replacing him with Ronaldo.

Lang will be appearing as Miss Madrigal in Enid Bagnold's infectiously eccentric and funny play, The Chalk Garden.

Leisuretime last spoke to the actress in September of 2002. Then she was a little apprehensive about appearing at Bromley's premier theatre because she feared its large auditorium would not provide the intimate setting required for the show she was taking there, Yasmina Reza's Lifex3.

But Lang says things worked out well in the end because she learned to adapt to the bigger theatre and now she is looking forward to playing at the Churchill once more.

She said: "It's becoming more like a second home to me, considering all the times I've played there.

"I hope the audience like The Chalk Garden because it is a bit different from Lifex3. It's an old play for a start, very much of its time and very wicked too."

Lang's fiesty character is a throwback in one way to the equally intimidating and viper-tonged Bill Porter in 2 Point 4 Children, the television sitcom for which she is best known for.

She said: "Even though my character is strange she is hired for her gardening skills, which are quite extraordinary. But she eventually exerts her influence and takes over the whole household."

The author, Enid Bagnold, (who also wrote National Velvet) was a famous novelist and glittering socialite. The Chalk Garden is a classic play of family forgiveness, amusement and intrigue.

It is about Laurel, an unruly girl who is being raised by her grandmother. Unable to cope with the wild teenager, the elderly woman searches for a companion to look after her granddaughter. Following a string of failed candidates, the stony-faced and mysterious Miss Madrigal arrives at the house with no references and a lost past. She demonstrates an eerie understanding of the dynamics of the household. Determined to straighten out the difficult teenage girl before she becomes unmanageable, the woman sets about the task with some vigour.

Under the governess' wing the young charge and the chalk garden begin to bloom but the arrival of a visitor threatens to upset the delicate balance and harmony instilled by the enigmatic spinster.

Bagnold's play inspired the memorable 1964 film starring Deborah Kerr and John and Hayley Mills but the celluloid version is far removed from the original, as Lang reveals.

She said: "For a start, the film isn't a comedy, they took all the funny lines out of it. All the characters are wild eccentrics in the play, whereas only Edith Evans was in the film she can't fail to be eccentric. What is more, the butler, played by John Mills, is straight and Deborah Kerr's Miss Madrigal isn't as attractive and mysterious as my character."

After the tour has ended, Lang and fellow actor David Haig (Four Weddings and a Funeral and The Thin Blue Line) hope to set up a touring company.

She said: "Hopefully, it will happen this year. We plan to start with a play he wrote about Rudyard Kipling. We don't want to take the shows to the big theatres but we want to encourage actors we like to leave London and go on tour at small theatres around the country.

"I think the big theatres are great for musicals but I would rather perform in an intimate theatre. There are very few plays I wouldn't rather do in an intimate theatre, even Shakespeare."

No suitable name for the company has yet been agreed.

She said: "Every name David comes up with sounds like a travel agent and everything I come up with sounds pretentious. We might have to have competition."

In the meantime why not catch The Chalk Garden, a play Kenneth Tynan, from The Observer, called "A triumph the finest English comedy". Directed by the distinguished director and critic Sheridan Morley, the play has quality bursting at the seams.

The Chalk Garden, Churchill Theatre, High Street, Bromley, Mar 24-29, 7.45pm, Thur & Sat Mat 2.30pm, £24-£14, 020 8460 6677