SHARON and Tracey sit gossiping over a cuppa before neighbour Dorien bursts in unannounced wearing very little clothing.

I feel like I’m in Chigwell long before The Only Way Is Essex was the county’s favourite TV export.

In fact, the setting today is the clothes-strewn shared dressing room of Linda Robson and Pauline Quirke.

Linda, who became a grandmother for the first time last year, is busy chatting about the new jumper she’s sporting, bought for and rejected by her daughter Bobbie.

“It’s a bit young for me I’ve decided – I might recycle it for Tracey though!”

Pauline, who now runs her own acting academy, is looking relaxed and very slender after losing eight stone.

Lesley Joseph’s dressing room is next door, but you’d hardly know it as there’s an open door policy. Lesley, who has been signed up to return to Southampton this Christmas for pantomime, bursts in wearing just a short dressing gown, Russian Cossack hat and full make up – before launching into a jig and plonking herself onto the counter.

We’re less than an hour before curtain up at Coventry’s Belgrade Theatre where the girls are currently on tour, but we could so easily be back on the set of Birds of a Feather.

The déjà vu feeling grows stronger as the trio take to the stage in the brilliant new stage version of the fondly remembered 90s sitcom, which visits The Mayflower in May.

“It’s just like we’ve never been away” laughs Linda, who has been a regular guest panellist on Loose Women and busied herself with jobs like The Vagina Monologues and Grumpy Old Women since her most famous role came to an end in 1998.

“It’s been over 14 years and it feels like a long weekend. We love being together. Sometimes the show gets in the way a little bit with our social lives,” adds Emmerdale star Pauline, currently on TV screens in the murder mystery Broadchurch.

It’s clear all three are firm friends, breaking off as we natter to talk of the lunch they’ve just enjoyed at Pauline’s house – Waitrose staff went all out to track down the particular soup they all favour – and the family trip they’re due to make to Stratford-upon-Avon tomorrow.

Linda and Pauline grew up together and some of the photographs during the opening TV credits are real childhood pictures of the pair.

Lunchtime drama lessons at their primary school led to parts in Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran’s ITV series Shine On Harvey Moon and, eventually, to the possibility of a comedy sitcom written especially for them.

Birds of a Feather placed at its heart the misadventures of three female characters – North London born, Essex bred sisters Sharon Theodopolopoudos and Tracey Stubbs and their man-eating neighbour Dorien Green.

When their hus-bands are jailed for armed robbery, Sharon moves out of her grotty council flat in Edmonton and into the splendour of Tracey’s criminally-funded suburban mansion.

Life in Chigwell is never dull.

“It was 1989 and we started a show being driven by three women talking about sex and all sorts of stuff. That was very rare then.

“We were talking about things that hadn’t really been talked about then – like abortion and testicular cancer.”

More than 13 million tuned in to the first episode and the show went from strength to strength in its just over 100 episodes, regularly attracting audiences of up to 20 million.

“We always felt really lucky to do it,”

Lesley, a regular radio presenter and star of Calendar Girls, tells me.

“It was a joy and it just works.

“It was part of our lives for so long. We went through births, deaths. Birds of a Feather is at the heart of our families really.”

The family thread continues to run through the stage version with Linda’s son Louis and Charlie, Pauline’s boy, sharing the one teenage role in the show.

One member of the family who is missing today is Bailey, Pauline’s chocolate Labrador, but he regularly tours with the girls and can be seen making his TV debut in ITV’s Broadchurch.

He’s not quite as famous as his mum and aunties though who tend to cause quite a stir when they socialise together.

“It’s much worse when we go out together than when we go out separately,” giggles Lesley.

“Bono recognised us in Berlin, that was a scream,” adds Linda.

And it’s not just in Europe where their fans flock. A tour is planned in Australia and New Zealand where re-runs are still extremely popular.

Plus the BBC are considering commissioning a new series.

Pauline says: “There’s a fabulous script with the BBC and we’re just waiting to hear back.”

Millions have their fingers crossed for a television return, but in the meantime, the trio bring Sharon, Tracey and Dorien back in some style on the stage.

l Linda, Pauline and Lesley take us a decade forward in Birds of a Feather on tour, which comes to The Mayflower from May 21 to 25.