Liza's stage turn

Liza Tarbuck has her own way of opting for the quiet life. After all, making your West End debut for director Franco Zeffirelli isn't many people's idea of a rest-cure.

But after years of carving out a niche for herself as one of Britain's best TV presenters, then carving another as a TV actress on BBC1 dramedy Linda Green, Tarbuck decided it was time to try something different.

'I don't know how you can work non-stop in telly and remain sane,' she says. 'You see people in the industry going crazy all the time. Anyone on the TV who you've got an inkling is mental... well you're bloody right! You can't hide that!'

After taking January off, she spurned three offers from provinicial theatres, gave the thumbs down to some uninspiring TV offers, then her agent told her she'd been offered a part in Absolutely! (Perhaps), Martin Sherman's new version of a rarely performed 1918 play by Luigi Pirandello.

It wasn't just the chance to work in town that appealed. It was Zeffirelli's film of Romeo And Juliet that had sparked her interest in acting at age

14. 'I had never seen text come off the page like that,' she enthuses. 'I was going to be a costume designer, but his film absolutely beguiled me.' Her agent sent tapes of Linda Green to the director in Rome and he gave her the part without an audition.

She's happy to admit that it's a very odd play: not only is it something of a parlour game in its illumination of the unknowability of others, but she only has a supporting role in it. She plays one of several townsfolk insatiably curious about outoftowners Ponza and mother-in-law Mrs Frola (Joan Plowright) - one, both or neither of whom is crazy.

'With a smaller role, there's no pressure,' she says. 'Telly can make you quite hard because you have to watch your back all the time. And to come back to the theatre, which is what I wanted to do in the first place anyway... it's kinder. Much kinder. There are no people in the world as accepting of foibles as actors.'

Tarbuck, daughter of Jimmy Tarbuck, went to Rada then gained her Equity card stage-managing for physical-theatre heroes Complicitè. TV triumph in The Big Breakfast, She's Gotta Have It and loads else followed.

But would she like to do more theatre now she's got clout? 'If the part's right, yeah,' she says. 'It's a hell of a buzz. Mind you, theatre money is s***, so I'm doing a lot of voice-overs. But I haven't been as excited about anything I've done for three years. I really like my TV work, I really do. But I'm also aware that some people think it's the bee's knees, and it's not.'