Stunning soap star Stephanie Beacham is set to shock her millions of male fans when she plays a lesbian in a new TV blockbuster.

The 42-year-old actress, who rocketed to fame as glamorous Sable Colby in Dynasty, will play a bitchy Beverly Hills businesswoman in an American mini-series of Jackie Collins' best-selling novel, Lucky.

But she says there won't be any love scenes: "The American TV bosses have banned all the naughty bits. The most daring it gets is when another woman pats me on the shoulder and gives me a wink!"

"I am a truly dreadful character in the series - I marry a rich man as a cover and then I want nothing to do with him."

It is another startling change of character for Stephanie, who played an intellectual nun earlier this year in the surprise American TV hit, Sister Kate.

Now she has returned to Britain to play yet another TV bitch - in a lavish $4 million drama series Cluedo,based on the detective board game. She is the ice-cold killer Mrs. Peacock.

Speaking to TV WEEK between filming the whodunnit murder series in a magnificent Elizabethan mansion in north England, she says: "I'm not bored with playing bitches. They are the most fun.

"My character is wonderfully funny and I hope people will see the amusing side of her."

Stephanie admits that one role she is unlikely to play again is a real-life bride.

She has lived with handsome American cameraman Steve Silver, 10 years her junior, in Hollywood for the past three years and says: "I'm happy as I am. My motto is, 'If it ain't broke - don't fix it'.

"Why do I have to get married? I don't need the security and we're in great shape. I'm wearing enough rings on my fingers anyway."

Later this year Stephanie will go to Ireland to film another mini-series in which she plays a frumpy housewife with a crush on a young boy. She says: "I wear no make-up, no jewellery, and comfy shoes - it's wonderful.

"This year has been one of my busiest ever and I've had a hat-trick of great parts - one nice, one nasty and one absolutely ridiculous!"