DENISE Welch is used to the limelight.

A popular television actress in such series as Coronation Street and Waterloo Road, more recently, she has established herself as a plainspeaking presence on ITV’s Loose Women.

She jokes: “I’ve been described as the Gob of the Tyne!”.

She is also a television presenter and a regular subject of stories in the tabloids and celebrity magazines.

Her best-selling autobiography, Pulling Myself Together, which detailed her struggle with depression and with the alcohol and drugs she took to combat it, has found a sympathetic ear among the many who also suffer from the illness.

With all this other activity, it’s easy to overlook Denise’s theatre career that began at the Live Theatre in Newcastle, within hailing distance of her birthplace in County Durham.

But why did she choose Steel Magnolias – in which she costars as Truvy – as a vehicle for her return to the stage?

“I hadn’t toured for about 20 years because I was otherwise engaged bringing up my children and I would just say ‘no thanks’ almost automatically,” explains Denise.

“But, when Steel Magnolias popped up, I thought to myself that I loved the film, that it was about eight years since I’d done any stage work and that it wasn’t that long a commitment, so I decided to go for it. Steel Magnolias is an ensemble piece and so I wouldn’t be carrying the weight of the play on my shoulders – everybody has an equal share – and I’d be working with some proper grown-up actresses.”

Comparing the stage with television, she adds: “I was desperate to come back to the stage where I could give a performance without somebody shouting ‘Cut!’. Rehearsal is a great luxury.

On television the lines are in your head only about five minutes before you’re due to go on the set to say them.”

Like the ladies in Steel Magnolias, Denise treasures her moments at the hairdressers.

“They’re friends, they’re counsellors,”

she enthuses. “You sit down, you relax, you have your coffee and you start to gossip. I love gossip – not the malicious kind – and I love to gossip with my friends. I love my female friends and it’s the Girl Power aspect of Steel Magnolias that was one of the reasons I wanted to do the play. I don’t quite trust women who don’t have many female friends. The friendships in the play are already reflected in the cast. The first day of rehearsals is a bit like the first day of school. To begin with, you think you’re the only person who’s a bag of nerves and who is worried and anxious about everything. In fact, you soon find out that everybody’s in the same position.”

At various stages of the tour, Denise will be returning to London to join her colleagues on Loose Women, the show that opened up a whole new presenting career for Denise.

“I was originally a guest on the show – this was before the programme became such an important part of the TV furniture – and I was eventually asked to be a regular member of the team. I tend to be a bit of an open book and that gives the viewer an access into what is happening in my life. People believe that I tell everybody everything but I’m just being myself.”

* Steel Magnolias is at The Mayflower, Southampton, from Monday to June 9.