Stephanie Beacham is one of those fortunate people who never appear to age. Or if they do, it's all done very gradually and you never see the join.

Smoulderingly glamorous, she is a prime example of a certain type of English lady who shops on account at Harvey Nichols and Harrods, drives an open-top Mercedes sports car and is perfectly at home, Pimms in hand, making small talk at Henley Royal Regatta or Royal Ascot.

In an age when everyone else seems to have produced a fitness video or a personal make-over book, I wondered why she hadn't.

"I must get round to it," she confessed. "My friends are always on to me to do something like that. I have a few ideas, it's just a case of finding the time."

If you think that while "resting", actresses might have plenty of time to indulge their hobbies, then you don't know Stephanie Beacham.

Because this English rose actually lives in Los Angeles, where she is on the Board of Free Arts for Abused Children and is spokesperson for the America Speech-Language-Hearing Association.

In other words, Stephanie is much involved with charity work, particularly the young deprived and those with hearing difficulties.

Amazingly, she is 40 per cent deaf and was born that way.

"So I have never noticed any different," she said. "It has never been a problem for me, but I understand the difficulties more severe hearing loss can pose for people."

As I said, you'd never have guessed it when she was swishing her way through Dynasty as Sable Colby, all shoulder pads and diamond rings, or suffering the privations of life in a Japanese prisoner of war camp as Rose in Tenko.

Her latest role is a sort of combination of the two - glamour and grit.

For in Nobody's Perfect, which is at Malvern Festival Theatre from May 28 - June 2, Stephanie takes the role of Harriet, the hard-nosed boss of a feminist publishing house, who rejects a novel by Simon Williams "because he is clearly not a lady", a tenuous excuse and one bound to lead to battle.

As Mr. Williams wrote the play, as well as appearing in it, you'd think he might get the upper hand eventually.

Well, I'm not letting the cat out of the bag and all Stephanie would say is that "It's lots of fun."

It's also a chance for local audiences to see one our all-time super sophisticates and to guess how she manages to stay like it.