THE LADY Vanishes has completed its triumphant run at Windsor's Theatre Royal.

Now it is off on a countrywide tour.

Its star Juliet Mills said: "This genre in the theatre is very much my favourite, I love comedy thrillers. People like thrillers and they like to laugh so this gives them both. It's a real mystery similar to an Agatha Christie....but here's the thing, it's not a revival, we are touring with a new play and it really is good."

This wonderful adaptation and stage play closely resembles the 1938 Hitchcock classic...if you haven't seen the film, don't...see this first, you'll be hooked.

Mills as Miss Froy is no Froy...dian slip.... she's come in from the cold... and some. Her acting is sublime, as is the whole casts' as the whistle is blown on joke after joke, nuance after nuance and clue after clue.

The actress said: "It's a good period piece as well as a great thriller, whodunnit and why. People are interested in these frightening times when Germany was about to annexe Austria and the people in dark places who make things happen."

So what was it like working with husband Maxwell Caulfield?

"It's heaven. We love hanging out together, touring together, going to new places, meeting old friends and making new ones.

"It's lovely travelling, staying for a week, then packing up and moving on, it's a real adventure.The great thing is we both have wonderful parts to play in this marvellous thriller."

Mills, of course, is no stranger to the 'Royal'. Coming from Denham, where she lived with father and national treasure, actor John Mills and mother Mary Hayley Bell and siblings actor Hayley and film producer Jonathan. The sisters played the wonderful drinkers in Bill Kenwright's Fallen Angels here 20 years ago, and she has appeared in several productions at this glorious theatre.

In a thrilling career spanning all of her life...she made her debut at 11 months old with dad in Noel Coward's film In Which We Serve...Mills has many fond memories of her life on stage and screen.

She tells me: "I met Maureen O'Hara before I worked with her and James Stewart on the western movie The Rare Breed. I was on Broadway in Five Finger Exercise in 1960 and I played a part with her in Mrs Miniver on American TV. When I went on to do the film dad was so jealous, he told me he had always wanted to do a western.

"I had a brilliant time as I did acting with Jack Lemon in Avante for Billy Wilder. They both became firm friends. Working with them was a dream."

Of course, Pinewood Studios was not a million miles away from the family home and the Carry On films were in full swing. In 1964 she was cast in Carry On Dick, a take on the Napoleonic sea war sagas.

She tells me: "It was absolutely hysterical. Kenneth Williams had me on the floor with laughter so many times and the boat we were shooting on was moored on Virginia Water so was very close to home."

Last year remaining Carry On cast members were part of a 60th anniversary 15-day Carry On Cruising celebration where fans could watch 15 famous films and get to meet the stars.

"It was lovely," she says.