THERE is a guest star in the cast as the London Repertory Players continue their four weeks of thrillers at Boscombe’s Shelley Theatre.

Nikki Kelly is best known as Sylvia, the yellow coat who was so often on the receiving end of catty put-downs from Ruth Madoc’s Gladys Pugh in Hi-De-Hi!

She has joined the cast of JB Priestley’s Dangerous Corner, in a small but juicy role. She plays a “crabby old woman” who helps inject poison into a social evening that goes spectacularly wrong when people’s dark secrets are revealed.

“I’m loving every minute of it,” the actress told the Daily Echo as the company rehearsed for the play. At that time, some of them were still performing in The Murder Game, in the evenings.

“The cast are fantastic. I can’t believe how good they are. I came to see The Murder Game, which was really good. Two or three or the cast were in that,” she said.

“We’ve had very little time to do it – only four days of rehearsals,” she said of Dangerous Corner.

“We have to turn up ‘off-book’,” she adds, meaning the play already has to be memorised.

She is full of admiration for the actors who appear repeatedly in the season. “They have such big roles and I don’t. it’s wonderful discipline, a great training ground,” she said.

The Portsmouth-raised actress did not come with the cast of Hi-De-Hi! when they played a massively successful summer season in Bournemouth in 1983, but she is learning to love the resort now.

“I can’t believe the beaches you’ve got here. They’re so wonderful. I’ve never explored the beaches this way before,” she said.

Dangerous Corner runs until Tuesday and is followed by Suddenly At Home, on Thursday.