WELCOME to the madhouse that is the build-up to the opening night of a pantomime. Jean Fergusson is applying silver dye and sparkling detail to her fairy shoes in a quiet moment in her Grand Opera House dressing room in York, only to be interrupted by the Evening Press entertainment reporter for another pressing engagement.

She lights a cigarette, sit backs... and knock, knock, a fellow cast member informs her she is needed for a Cockney routine. Moments later, another knock, another actor, same message. Then, the door handle falls off...

"You couldn't make it up," she says, as another knock interrupts the conversation. Cockney scenes. Yes, she knows. Sorry, door knob has gone wonky. Yes, she knows.

Anyway, on with the Dick Whittington show in which Jeans adds fairy dust to her best-known role, Marina in Last Of The Summer Wine, to become, whoosh, Fairy Marina.

"Usually I get to play the fairy in panto because my TV character is dippy and blonde, but being Marina she's an over-the-top fairy, so there'll be all these Last Of The Summer Wine fans out to see me coming on stage on a bike with lots of glitter and a pair of shorts!"

Jean is more than happy to reprise her Marina character. "If I just played it straight, I doubt I'd be asked to play the part. You have to do the character you're known for, and because I'm not one of the 'nasty' characters in Last Of The Summer Wine, you could imagine Marina taking up a wand and spreading her magic," she says.

"I also get loads of letters from people who like Marina and so it would be a shame to disappoint them by playing the Fairy differently."

Last Of The Summer Wine, the most ironically titled series of all time, is coming up to its 30th year, 18 of them featuring Jean as Marina. Next up is the Christmas special at 6pm on December 30.

"Funnily enough, it's also my birthday that day," she says. "I'm actually pretty fully clothed in this episode, as I'm in fishing gear - and I don't think that's giving anything away about the plot. What I can say is, we have June Whitfield and Warren Mitchell as special guests, which is wonderful."

Another ten episodes of Roy Clarke's third-age comedy are ready for transmission in the spring, and the series shows no signs of the Wine running out. "We're constantly surprised but if people are still watching and the ratings are good, they'll keep making it, and why not?" says Jean.

"It's become an institution; we won the National Television Award for best comedy in 1999, and the biggest accolade is that we're in the Guinness Book Of Records as the longest-running TV comedy in the world. It's wonderful that it's still got so many fans."

Jean enjoys Summer Wine as much as ever. "It's huge fun to do," she says. "I think it's helped that this 'family' of regulars has grown: we are the salt and pepper to keep giving the seasoning to the theme - and it's still about the men and their misadventures! As Bill Owen used to say, it's Just William with pensioner books."

Jean and her co-star in Dick Whittington, the former Neighbours soap star Anne Charleston - who plays Queen Rat - will be re-uniting next March for a nationwide tour of John A Penzotti's American play Five Blue Haired Ladies Sitting On A Green Park Bench.

They were in the British premiere too, last spring at Lincoln Theatre Royal, with Jean in the role of the paranoid, nervy, recently bereaved Eva Reich, whose husband had been having an affair that she knew about but never discussed.

It may be a New York drama but the Five Blue Haired Ladies remind Jean of a certain evergreen popular British comedy: "They're like a female version of the three men in Last Of The Summer Wine, getting up to mad things as they live out their days," she says.

She hopes that the tour schedule, yet to be announced, will include York or at least a Yorkshire theatre. For certain, she knows there will be a canine new addition to the cast. "There have been some re-writes since I did it in Lincoln. I'm told I'll have to work with a live dog, a West Highland terrier. Luckily I love dogs. I just hope the dog loves the stage!" says Jean.

In the meantime, she will be waving her magic wand in York: her personal wand at that. "I travel with my own wand but it doesn't fit in my bag, so I have to sit with it separately with me. Anyway, the other day, I was stuck in the York traffic in a taxi, and the driver said 'Can't you wave that wand?'

"I said 'Oh no, the magic only works in the theatre'!"

That's the magic of theatre.

Dick Whittington, Grand Opera House, York, tonight until January 6. Tickets: £7.60 (children) to £13.50, family of four £34; ring 01904 671818.