Secretly we all admire a bitch - which is why Connie is destined for the top. Imagine the venomous charms of Alexis from Dynasty combined with the ruthless business acumen of Dallas dynamo JR and you'll get an inkling of the leading character of Sunday's CTV drama series.

Connie is set in the fast-moving fashion business, with a tough industrial background, demanding dialogue and equally demanding schedule, as actress Stephanie Beacham discovered when she agreed to play the part.

'I adore Connie - she's quite frightful,' says Stephanie, eyes twinkling. 'I can't help but admire her. She's utterly single-minded, ambitious, vindictive, vicious, yet she also has a wonderful sense of humour. She's feminine and glamorous - but at heart, she's an alley cat. She'll claw her way to the top, and the ultimate objective is always money.'

When work on the programme first began, Stephanie was still very underweight. Her previous part as Japanese prisoner-of-war Rose in the much-acclaimed Tenko TV series called for her to lose 20 lb., and a subsequent spell in hospital made her even thinner. However, Stephanie rose to the challenge and struggled to put back the curves.

'Connie's appearance is vitally important,' she explains, 'because she's involved in the fashion industry.'

The prelude to the drama is that her father and stepmother are in the Midlands knitwear trade. During the Sixties, Connie builds up a successful chain of fashionable boutiques. Just as she's beginning to make money, her marriage goes sour and she impetuously sells out to her half-sister and disappears off to a Greek island.

In retrospect, she realises that she sold herself very short and arrives back in England to settle a few scores and rebuild her empire.

Stephanie kept in mind Connie's predatory qualities when choosing her wardrobe for the part. 'She's a very sensual woman, making full use of her instincts to guide her through the business jungle. So she wears a lot of leather and quality clothes, such as cool wool and cashmere. to help boost her image.'

The black leather suit Connie chooses to wear to a funeral, perfectly sums up her 'damn-the-world' attitude. Conventions have no place in Connie's world. She's not afraid to capitalise on her good figure, using clothes to make strong statements about herself and her intentions.

'She's also capable of wearing jeans and sweatshirts, but whatever she wears, she gives it her own flair,' says Stephanie. 'The difficulty is, I have to transmit all these qualities to the screen! But to quote Connie: "If you've got the legs and you've got the shoulders, it wouldn't matter if you were wearing an old bin-bag."'

To match the sleek, chic clothes, Stephanie also had to find the right face and make-up. 'The essence of Connie is that she is a free spirit. I felt I had to catch her feline moods - whether tiger, or something softer - by using the right eye make-up. I decided to make them very cat-like -black rimmed inside the eye, with kohl - and Connie, you'll notice, does a lot of sideways glancing. I've never shown so much white of eye!

Living the part of Connie has left Stephanie Beacham drained of desire to buy clothes for herself or try hard with her own appearance. She admits; 'I have no glamour left and Connie is taking every inch of the bitch in me. I always go to the opposite extreme of whatever part I'm playing. For instance, in Tenko, I yearned to wear nail polish and dress up after a day's filming. But in Connie, I'm happy to slop around in jeans. I'll leave the smart clothes and the glamorous image to her.'