A sk Debbie Reynolds who she knew and worked with during Hollywood's golden era and she reels off a list featuring nearly all the greatest stars. She worked and partied with them all.

"Glenn Ford was one of my favourites. And Tony Curtis, Gregory Peck, Jimmy Stewart, Judy Garland, Ava Gardner, Frank Sinatra…"

The list goes on. Humphrey Bogart, Bette Davis, Marilyn Monroe...

But one name she neglects to mention is that of Elizabeth Taylor. That's not surprising, however, as Taylor ignited one of the biggest Hollywood scandals of the time, running off with Debbie's then husband and the father of her two children, Eddie Fisher.

While it is the Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie and Jennifer Aniston love triangle that takes up tabloid space these days, in the late 1950s the Elizabeth, Debbie and Eddie drama made all the headlines.

However, not mentioning Taylor, it seems, is an oversight, and the charming and gracious Miss Reynolds is quick to put the record straight.

"It's true, we were the Brad, Angelina and Jennifer of our day," she laughs. "We had paparazzi all over our backyards, but the pressure wasn't as bad as it is today." And, she was quick to forgive.

"Some years after it happened, my second husband, Harry Karl, and I were on the QE2 with Elizabeth and Richard Burton, who I loved. He was wonderful on that trip, quoting poetry and prose to me, and we all had some good times.

"Later on, Elizabeth and I were in a picture, These Old Broads, together and that was a lot of fun too.

"It's all in the past. I'm religious, and it isn't that you forget, but you forgive. Everyone changes, grows up and becomes nicer!"

The two stars speak on the phone now about once a month.

Debbie has a close family. Her daughter, actress and author Carrie Fisher, 53, and grand-daughter Billie, 19, live next door.

"Carrie can't get rid of her mother," she laughs. "She has a mansion in five acres, and I have a little house out the front."

Carrie famously played Princess Leia in the Star Wars film, so will Billie be the third generation to enter showbiz?

"She has a lot of talent, and sings and dances but she wants to go to college, so I don't know," her grandmother says.

Debbie's career has spanned more than 60 years as a singer, dancer and actress, and in the 1950s she was one of Hollywood's most sought after stars. Her best known roles include an Oscar-nominated turn in The Unsinkable Molly Brown, playing alongside Gene Kelly in Singin' In The Rain, and more recently her six-year stint as Debra Messing's mother, Bobbi, in the sitcom Will And Grace, which earned her an Emmy nomination.

Last time she appeared on stage in this country was at the London Palladium in 1973 but now she's back and as part of a pre-West End tour of her nightclub show Alive And Fabulous will be visiting Tunbridge Wells next month.

"The tour is going to be fun," she says. "We're going all over the country but we won't be staying at hotels. It's the old bus-and-truck tour for us.

"I have my band, and after the show is over, the kids and I get on the bus, have a singsong and tell stories. I can't really get to some of the places I'm going to by plane, so I chose to go by bus. They're really big these days and have sleepers. It'll be like having a dorm party!"

As for Tunbridge Wells... "Well, I'm not too sure where it is, what's it like?" Go! tells her about the garden of England, The Pantiles – "how do you spell that? I'm writing this all down" – and how the daffodils should be out when she arrives on April 10.

The two-hour show is a variety show, she says. "I do a tribute to Judy Garland, and songs I love myself. The pretty songs – I don't do rock 'n' roll."

The show will also include some film clips, "you'll see me in my very young years, when I was 16 and just starting out", as well as some 'bloopers' from classic films.

Debbie will also perform her famous impressions including Bette Davis, Barbara Streisand and the "very funny and sexy" Mae West.

But why at nearly 78 – Debbie celebrates her birthday on April 1 – does she keep performing? "I work 42 weeks of the year, taking my show to nightclubs all over the States. Las Vegas is still huge and wonderful and I get such a buzz from it all.

"I lived and worked through a fantastic era that will never be repeated. I went to private parties where Judy Garland or Ethel Merman would get up and sing. It was unbelievable. I got to have the best of times and I just love sharing all of that.

"Plus, I want people to see I'm still going! I have no plans to ever retire."

Saturday April 10 at 7.30pm Tickets £29.50 from 01892 530613 or www.assemblyhalltheatre.co.uk