“Hello darlings”-Lilian Bellamy from the Archers is coming to the South Hams!

Sunny Ormonde, who plays the famously outrageous, gin-loving, larger than life character of Lilian from the Archers is bringing her one woman show to the Flavel in Dartmouth.

For an evening of laughter, anecdotes, limericks, poems and Lilian style extracts, this is the place to be to witness one of the Archers’ most loved characters come out from behind the radio.

All the connecting pieces making up the performance are linked in some way to Sunny’s life-from her life as an actress to the development of Lillian and her relationship with the long lasting radio character.

The second half will include a predictably popular, question and answer session which can be for Sunny or in the character of Lilian, with a prize for the most original Archers question. The evening will be a “potpourri” of moments, as described by Sunny.

Sunny’s inspiration for the show came from her time at an Edinburgh Festival where she was performing another show which included a question and answer session where she was encouraged to answer as Lilian.

“People loved it” Sunny explained as she allowed the character to answer questions exactly how they were in a true Lilian style.

Afterwards, while at the Oswestry literary festival, Sunny was asked if she would consider creating a show as an “evening with Lilian” to which she jumped at the chance and set about creating a show.

With a date set and a show created, Sunny performed her first one woman show a year later, which was met with infectious laughter from all who watched it.

“I love performing on the stage while meeting the audience and listeners of the show” added Sunny.

However, she stressed that you don’t have to listen to the Archers to enjoy the show. In fact, “many times people have spoken to me after the performance having never seen the show and said what fun they had”.

After just talking to Sunny for about 40 minutes, her enthusiasm, humour and snippets from the show shone through and I would thoroughly recommend the show.

For the millions of Archers fans out there, Sunny also revealed how much she has enjoyed developing the character of Lilian, especially bringing out her more emotional side.

“I have been playing her 18 years and it has been a real rare pleasure as an actress to stay with a character for that length of time.

“I have had the pleasure to get to know Lilian and relate to her over the years which is why I can so easily respond to questions as she would.

“When I auditioned for the part of Lilian, the previous night I had created a laugh for the character which is now her trade mark.

“I went into the audition convinced I wouldn’t get the part after the director suggested I might be too young. So I went in with a relaxed mindset that I wasn’t going to get it anyway, so I decided to have a bit of fun with the character of Lilian.

“Later that day I got the call that I’d got the part and I couldn’t believe it. I think the relaxed quality was what they were looking for and I went to work straight away on developing the croaky side of Lilian’s voice.”

Sunny finished the interview with her predictions for the Archers, specifically for Lilian. She thinks Lilian will have a period of calm now with Justin and perhaps offer more support for her sister Jenny.

“But I’m sure the writers will soon create a story when Lilian starts behaving badly again.”

Sunny will be performing at The Flavel on Monday, May 7, at 7.30pm.