It's curious how certain decisions we make affect the rest of our lives. Selling my house and putting the girls in a new school was one of those decisions that would affect my future.

If The Colbys offer had come up at any other time, I would have had to say no, because with the girls being school age and living with me, it would have been a problem taking them off to live in California. My house was another problem. It was so big and so special, it would have been impossible to rent it out.

The Colbys offer came at just the right moment. I, however, was not interested. It happened like this.

My agent in England, Maureen Vincent, decided to make a reciprocal arrangement with another agent in Los Angeles, and she chose Marian Rosenberg. Maureen then went to visit her in California.

Well, Marian had worked as an executive producer on The Nightcomers, and she had also worked on Tam Lin. In a conversation with Esther Shapiro, executive producer for Dynasty, about the new series The Colbys, Marian said: "I haven't seen this woman for years. But if this English actress, Stephanie Beacham, has grown up like I think she ought to have grown up, she would be perfect for the part of Sable."

I have no idea how Marian suddenly remembered me after all those years. Anyway, Maureen and Marian finally met at Marian's office.

Maureen opened her briefcase and started to talk about all the actors and actresses she represented. The first photograph she laid out on the table was mine. Marian asked, "Who is that?" Maureen told her and Marian said, "Will you excuse me for a minute?" She immediately picked up the telephone and rang Esther, and in an excited voice said, "We've found her!"

This was all happening in California while I was wrapped up in the final stages of Connie. The Connie series was very successful and I had no way of suspecting what was going on so many miles across the ocean.

As soon as she got back to London, Maureen called me up with the good news. She also said: "A shooting crew will be in London in a few days to do some tests. They're very interested in you and definitely want you to go to the audition."

I thought, 'Oh, for heaven's sake! The only reason Americans are looking for an actress in England is to get her cheaper...'

But Maureen was not daunted. "I'll send you down the script anyway," she said. Which she did.

I was not at all convinced. I thought, 'I will not go down to London and waste my time. I promised I'd spend the summer with the girls and I'm going to do just that.'

The script arrived. I went to the beach. I was walking on the beach reading the script, it was a windy day, and a sudden gust of wind came up and blew the script away. I thought, 'Well, there you go, tough.' And that's exactly what I thought about the series at that time.

However... destiny had something else in mind.

A few hours later, my neighbour, who was watching my house in London for me, rang me up to say, "I'm sorry, Stephanie, but I went over to feed the fish, and I locked the keys to your house inside."

She was planning to force the lock, but it was a very expensive lock I'd just had put in and I decided it wasn't worth it. So, I said, "Don't worry. I'll come down to London with my keys." I couldn't let my poor fish die of starvation...

And since I had to go to London anyway, I decided I could pay a little visit to the set where the Americans were doing the tests. I rang up Maureen and informed her. "Okay, I'll do the test because I have to come to London to feed my fish..."

I walked into the audition. There was a whole group of fairly well-known British actresses there in evening dress. I suddenly felt something. 'What's this?' I asked myself. 'It smells like blood here... No, just a minute, it smells of fear in this room.' I then realised that these actresses were very scared! 'This is heavy duty,' I thought, 'people are really taking this seriously.' Someone handed me a script, since mine was lost somewhere on that rocky beach. Well, I calmly said, 'Okay, kid, do it. Just go for it...' And I read my part.

I was very calm. I was planning to spend the summer with my daughters and I had no intention of going off to work in America. So I was taking the whole thing very lightly. Actually, I was really having quite a good time.

And that was it. A week later, I was in Los Angeles!

The only condition that Aaron Spelling put on my contract was that he had to see me before we started to work seriously on the series. I was convinced this was going to be one of those pop-over trips.

I told the girls: "I'm sure this is just for four days. No matter what happens, we'll go on vacation together." Well, they did have a vacation because they came to California. But I was hard at work on The Colbys by then.

I went to California with just a couple of things thrown in my suitcase and a couple of nickels. I was absolutely convinced they weren't going to choose me.

I met Aaron in the morning. They sent me to the wardrobe department in the afternoon, and two days later I was working in Dynasty.

Actually, I was hired to work on The Colbys, but to introduce my character to the audience they had me do two episodes on Dynasty before starting the other series.

The first scene I had to do was a party. We were supposed to be having a family meeting of sorts. They handed me a glass of champagne and sat me down next to Linda Evans.

My glass was shaking like a leaf in my hand. I asked the director if I could put the glass down. "Why?" he asked, puzzled. I blurted out, "Because I'm so nervous that people are going to think I'm drunk."

I'd suddenly realised what I was doing, filming a TV series in Hollywood! And I was so incredibly nervous I was shaking. My first scene was with Linda , and she was as sweet as could be.

When I got back to the hotel it suddenly became very clear to me that I was going to be in Los Angeles for a lot longer than four days. I rang up my sister Di-Di, who happened to be back in England at the time. I said, "Di-Di, pretend I'm dead." "What do you mean?" she asked. Then I explained: "I'm going to have to be here for at least a year and I need all my things. So just say that I've died. Go to my house, throw out all the junk and stick what's good in suitcases. And... sorry, but you'll have to make a little visit and bring it all to Hollywood."

She did it and on her way back home to Connecticut, she stopped off in Los Angeles and brought me my possessions. My dresses, my souvenirs, and my favourite tea-pot. I'm not quite sure how she did it, but for a while afterwards my nieces kept asking if it was true that Aunt Stephanie had died...