ACTRESS Louise English is frantically busy these days. The former Pan's People dancer and Benny Hill Angel is playing up to three shows a day at Canterbury's Marlowe Theatre Arena.

She plays the triple role of Mrs Darling, Mia the Mermaid and Big Chief Squatting Cow in the panto Peter Pan alongside former Bottom star Ade Edmondson as Mr Darling and Captain Hook and Herne's own tubby funnyman Dave Lee as the fairy Tinkerbelly.

On one of her few days off - Christmas Day - she returned to her home in Fordwich, just outside Canterbury - to cook Christmas dinner for her family.

"I just don't seem to have enough hours in the day," she admitted.

She had just heard she is to return to the West End in April as gypsy girl Rosa alongside David Essex in All The Fun Of The Fair.

"It's brilliant news and you are the first person I've told. It's hot off the press," she said as she prepared to walk her two dogs.

Even in panto she insists on finding time to drive home to give the animals a run. But she refuses to reveal their names.

"There are dog-nappers about," she warned.

"I had a friend who had her dogs stolen after she let slip what they were called and she was sent a ransom note for £5,000."

Not even the dastardly Hook would sink so low.

Louise was born in London 47 years ago. Her father was a conductor with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and her mum Liz was an actress, singer and dancer who appeared in the films Oliver! Half a Sixpence and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

She was also a backing singer for Tom Jones and Engelbert Humperdinck and it was her voice on the Bobby Goldsboro hit Honey.

Louise said: "I'm afraid music was born in me. I used to stand in the wings and desperately want to get on the stage.

"My poor mother and father did their utmost to stop me but it didn't work!"

When she was two she had her first ballet lesson and later won a scholarship to the Stella Mann School of Ballet. She recalled: "It was very good training, very hard."

She later enrolled in the Anna Scher Theatre School in Islington. One of her first roles was as the ballerina in the children's film Bugsy Malone.

She said: "I was so thrilled to be chosen but my ballet school didn't really approve. It wasn't encouraged."

Worse was to follow. She auditioned for Top of the Pops dancers Pan's People.

"When I told the principal I was going to join Pan's People and not the Royal Ballet she was somewhat shocked. But I never wanted to be a ballet dancer. I wanted to sing, dance and act and to get into musical theatre."

She added: "I met Benny when I was in Pan's People. He came to see us. When I first worked with him he didn't have his Hill's Angels but was looking for five or six girls who could sing, dance and act in comedy sketches.

"I was given a line, then a sketch was written for me, and after that I became his leading lady."

She said: "I loved working with him. He was very professional and extremely funny. He was also very sensitive and a super guy."

Just before he died he went to see her perform in Me and My Girl in the West End.

She said: "It was a Wednesday matinee. He was very ill at the time, it was just about the last few days of his life, and he did struggle.

"I remember him sitting about four rows from the front and he stood up and applauded me at the end and he was crying. That was amazing because he was like a dad to me."

She has played Karl Howman's Italian girlfriend Lucia Morella in Brush Strokes and met Whitstable horror actor Peter Cushing while making the film The House of the Long Shadows with Vincent Price, Christopher Lee and John Carradine.

She said: "Peter was always talking about Whitstable so I went to see him and his wife and fell in love with the town. My mum came from Birchington so I had no hesitation in coming back to Kent three years ago."

Last year she toured in the musical Hello, Dolly! then began a nine-month tour in All The Fun Of The Fair.

Doesn't she ever feel tired?

She said: "It's a discipline. You have to give a hundred per cent. There are people in the audience who have paid a lot of money. As a professional I could never come off stage knowing I'd only given 90 per cent.

"Everything I've ever done I've done with great pride. I've worked with some lovely people and I've had some great experiences.

"The only thing I haven't done is have a role in a TV soap. I'd like to be a goody-two-shoes who turns into an absolute monster. That would be fantastic.

"Maybe playing Rosa will lead me down a different road towards the naughty ones?"

Maybe we'll find out in the new year.

Peter Pan is at Canterbury's Marlowe Arena until January 17. Call 01227 787787 or visit www.marlowetheatre.com for tickets.