Bad? She's just getting started! Glamorous Hollywood star Stephanie Beacham is going to jail - and she's relishing every minute of it.

Here's a thing, An internationally known actress who's not only right on time for our meeting in an upmarket London hotel, but insists on paying for our afternoon tea. Punctuality and generosity are not the normal traits of stellar celebs.

But Stephanie Beacham has always been different. The glamorous actress, still best known as Sable Colby in the Eighties US soaps Dynasty and its spin-off The Colbys, may now be 53, but she still has the stunning looks that make women a decade younger green with envy.

She is fine-boned and slim, wearing hardly any make-up and gently tanned from living part of the year in Los Angeles. Casually elegant in a Joseph fine-ribbed white T-shirt and camel scarf under a very soft white sheepskin jacket, she looks effortlessly chic something she claims has not always been the case.

"Actually as a child, compared to my mother, I always felt scruffy," Stephanie admits as she nibbles on half a scone. "My mother, Joan, was totally glamorous. She was naturally elegant, naturally beautiful, genteel, beautiful posture, all those Edwardian things. She wasn't an inspiration to me, though. She always made me feel scruffy. I was forever saying 'look mummy I can do my hair nice, too'. I didn't realise until she died five years ago, how much of my career was dedicated to her. I was always craving attention. Something to do with being the third one out in the family between my sisters Di-Di and Janet and my brother Robert. Totally loved but third out was nothing special - not the baby, not the boy. So no wonder I had to jump up and down and be a Hollywood star. Thank you mummy! Good call! This is not a complaint but a realisation."

If her mother, however unwittingly, made Stephanie become a star, she did a good job. Along with Dynasty and The Colbys, there were other US series, Sea Quest DSV; Beverly Hills 90210, major films like The Nightcomers with Brando and, of course, here, series like Connie and there was also Tenko. As Rose in Tenko, Stephanie even managed to look glam in a Japanese World War II prisoner of war camp.

And it's back to prison for her new outing on British TV as Phyl Oswyn in Bad Girls. She and her partner Bev Tull (ex-Corrie star Amanda Barrie) are in Larkhall Women's Prison for various con-tricks cooked up whilst living as ex-pats in Portugal.

As Stephanie's main home is in Santa Monica, California, I wonder why she has decided to move back to Britain - albeit temporarily - after so long.

"There were a number of things," she explains. "I needed to get back on British TV; it has been a long time. My youngest daughter, Chloe, who's 24, is here, so obviously I want to see her. I was sent a couple of episodes of Bad Girls with an offer and immediately asked for the whole series. Not because I wanted reassurance but because I was addicted! It's a 'tune in and enjoy' series."

Her eldest daughter, Phoebe, 28, lives in Los Angeles and has made Stephanie a grandmother to a boy, Jude, who's nearly three. Stephanie Beacham and the word grandmother may seem a contradiction in terms but once Stephanie gets going, she's as doting as any other granny.

Stephanie's daughters are the offspring of her marriage to actor John McEnery that ended in divorce after 10 years when the children were young. She has never remarried but had a series of relationships with often younger men.

"My boyfriends have always been 27! I've gone on and on and they've always been 27! Serial monogamy has been my pattern. It has to be broken sometime and I've broken it now. I will wait and see what the universe turns up. I'm beginning to audition! I'm interviewing!" she laughs, before taking a bite of the tiniest watercress sandwich you've ever seen.

She admits that a physical attraction is imperative: "With me it's always been very very sensual, overly so. I get utterly attracted to someone. It's always 'I know he's a penniless b*****d but, my God, every nerve tingles at the thought of him!' That's what I've always worked on. How dysfunctional is that?"

It seems Stephanie's daughters have inherited her effortless allure - a far cry from how Stephanie herself felt growing up. Stephanie says: "The other day, Chloe and I were going to a ball, and she came dashing in late with her hair screwed up and wearing trainers. In five minutes flat the hair came out, she grabbed a tiny bit of lace out of a bag, shook it and wiggled into it and put on her Gina shoes and there she was. I thought 'you have it kid'"

Resolutely British, living in West Hollywood has had some impact on Stephanie nonetheless and she admits she recently went on a five-day intensive course in the desert to deal with 'control issues'. She has the self-effacement to raise her eyebrows and say, 'only in America', but felt she learnt some valuable lessons. "I didn't realise how controlling of Phoebe and Chloe I was. I see it as protective and caring. As I've mainly been a single parent I'm the one who's always been there when the buck stops, the one who criticised, listened, loved and said 'don't worry, I can sort this out'. It's hard not to do that now even though they're grown up."

For the foreseeable future she will divide her time between London and Los Angeles. As with a number of things with Stephanie it's a distinct contrast. The woman typifies all that is 'starry' but in conversation is refreshingly down-to-earth. She's into 'new age spiritualism' but exemplifies old-school morals. Her insistence on paying for the tea shows a deep-rooted sense of fair play, too. And you can't ask for more than that.