Even though she left the nation's favourite soap years ago, Sophie Lawrence will probably forever be known as Diane Butcher, Frank's daughter from EastEnders, for which she says she will always be grateful.

"Even now I'm older and I've changed so much, I still get recognised," she says.

Since leaving EastEnders Sophie has taken on a number of theatre roles.

"I've played everything from schoolgirls to wives who have committed adultery and are about to be shot for it."

Currently Sophie is in rehearsals for an Agatha Christie play at Chichester Festival Theatre. In Murder at the Vicarage she plays the role of the vicar's wife, Griselda Clement.

"She's a young, flighty piece who had great fun in the Second World War - she thought it was the most wonderful thing that ever happened! Then it finished and she decided that she should find somebody sensible to settle down with," says Sophie.

"But she can't cook, she's useless at cleaning and she can't organise anything, everything turns into a disaster - all she does is go shopping. Griselda thinks everyone should just have fun.

"Everybody in the village disapproves of her, especially Miss Marple who is always remarking on it - always digging at her and telling her how wonderful things were before she arrived. But Griselda's got Miss Marple's number, she knows she's a busybody and an interfering old so-and-so. They both grit their teeth and smile sweetly at each other," says Sophie.

Ian Dicken's production is a faithful version of a Christie classic which sees famous female sleuth Miss Marple investigating the death of Colonel Protheroe - the most unpopular man in the village.

"I'd never done an Agatha Christie and I like this period - the costumes and the hair, the style of people and how they behaved back then - it was all so innocent in the 1950's," says Sophie.

"I have this awful job of going in to make-up at four o'clock every day to have my hair set with old-fashioned rollers and setting lotion that smells like paint stripper!," reveals Sophie.

But Sophie says it's worth it and thinks the transformation is fantastic. "I look in the mirror and I really look like something out of the 1950s," she says.

Sophie says she still watches the EastEnders sometimes and recently was told that her character had been mentioned

"That's disgraceful, I was being used as an alibi and I didn't even know about it!," she jokes.

"I think it's great that the character is being kept going like that.

"But now I'm a jobbing actress and that's what I love - the excitement of not knowing what comes next."

Murder at the Vicarage is at the Chichester Festival Theatre from 6-11 November.