AGE is of no consequence to Dulcie Gray, or thankfully, to her agent.

Eighty this year, Dulcie is still thriving on her work in the theatre with a career that stretches back almost 60 years.

Those years included an enormously happy marriage to fellow actor Michael Denison.

Michael died in 1998 but Dulcie marches on and will be appearing at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford, from February 8-19 in Les Liaisons Dangereuses.

"I miss him like hell," says Dulcie. "He never let me down."

They appeared together for some 60 per cent of the time in innumerable productions here and abroad. They met at the Webber Douglas drama school and became firm friends at once. It's tremendous luck marrying a good friend.

"He was the nicest man I've met. Very funny, very clever, a good actor and to my mind not quite conceited enough. He loved playing big parts but he was never 'starry'.

"People thought he was very grand but he wasn't. His father was a Yorkshire paint manufacturer but when his mother died when Michael was just three weeks old, he was brought down to Richmond.

"I think we both needed a real home. My parents were based in Malaysia and I was sent to boarding school in England when I was just three and a half. I didn't see my mother for five years and didn't recognise her when she eventually was able to visit me.

"She was very eccentric with red hair and wore a monocle. My father died in a freak accident falling from a ship in Singapore harbour and hit his head on the quay.

"After he died my mother became a librarian in Singapore and installed a live crocodile called Caroline in the foyer. She too died tragically, drowned while trying to escape from the Japanese during the war."

The theatre too has been Dulcie's home and she has nothing but praise for her fellow actors.

"Since Michael died there have been only two days when I have not visited or been visited by someone. Most actors are kind, funny, disciplined and caring. They enjoy themselves and are more outgoing. When you leave a cast many become firm friends. In fact I'm having lunch soon with Jan Harvey with whom I appeared in TV's Howard's Way.

"It's a sort of family."

Dulcie and Michael started out together virtually penniless and became one of the youngest acting couples in the theatre, going on to become one of the oldest.

"Marriages fail in all professions but there are great temptations in the theatre. But temptation can be quite fun if you don't give in to it!"

The war interrupted Dulcie and Michael's career. Michael, with a first class honours degree in French and German, was whisked off into the Intelligence Service and was sent to North Africa and Greece.

After the war JB Priestley played a major part in re-establishing them on the stage.

"We knew Jack from the days when he ran the London Masque Theatre Company at the Westminster Theatre. He allowed Michael time off from the Masque to join Stewart Granger in Aberdeen where they also just happened to need a leading girl...

"Michael had been earing £3, less 2/6 for insurance, and it wasn't enough to allow us to marry. Jack put us in the last first stage play in London before and after the war.'

Just before he died Michael Denison began a book, the Pocket Biography of JB Priestley. "When Michael died I finished writing it for him."

No slouch at writing, Dulcie is the author of 24 books, 17 of which are crime novels and her work includes a book on her special passion, butterflies.

A fellow of the Linnean Society, Dulcie's interest in butterflies began as a schoolgirl when she saw them being put into "stink" bottles by young collectors.

"They were the only really colourful things in an English for a young girl used to Malaysia's deep blue skies and a hot climate. Seeing those beautiful pathetic things fluttering as they died stuck in my mind. I began to read about them and discovered what wonderful things they are."

Dulcie's memories are crystal clear and her ability to remember her lines has not deserted her. "But I must not tempt providence by saying it."

Her role as Madame de Rosemonde in Les Liaisons Dangereuses will not be too taxing. "It's a short role but she is one of the few really nice people in it.'

The story of sexual intrigue and ruthless seduction, written by Christopher Hampton from the novel by Laclos, has ben a stage and screen hit, winning an Oscar in 1988. Set in the salons of 18th century France, it is beautifully costumed.

"I don't find costume drama any different to play, unless I disapprove of the dress! We've only just began to rehearse and I am happy to be working with Sophie Ward whose father Simon worked with us many times in one of my favourite plays, An Ideal Husband.

"My character is very lively and easy going despite being much older than the others."

Dulcie's most recent visit to the Arnaud was in the stage version of the old Ealing film comedy, The Ladykillers with Tim Brooke-Taylor.

"Although it was a complicated two-level set I didn't find it too demanding. The laughs came early and rolled through the play.

"It lifted one's spirits!"

There are, however, two great sadnesses in Dulcie's life. One is that she never did play much Shakespeare, the other, naturally, is losing Michael.

"Two years before he died, Michael was in Shadowlands and he was given a t-shirt that said something like 'the price of happiness is pain afterwards'.

"Isn't that ironic? "

Sandy Baker

The Herald Arts and Ents pages are where you'll find the best reviews of plays and concerts in the area.