KIM Allan smiles as you wonder who she will be channelling in order to play Scotland’s sexiest woman.

“I’m not too sure,” says the Ayrshire-born actress, grinning. “My mum always says she wanted to be Maggie, so perhaps I’ll be thinking about my mum as her.”

Kim is having to reflect a little because Maggie isn’t in fact a real, live human being.

She’s Maggie Broon, of the Broons family, the blonde cartoon love bomb, the sexy, glamourous creature fancied by every man and boy in Scotland, the lady every woman wanted to become.

Maggie is Dorothy Paul in her heyday. And now Kim gets to play her in a new stage play, The Broons – Maggie’s Wedding.

It’s no surprise to learn this is the first time the actress will play a cartoon character.

“It’s also the first time the Broons have been performed on stage,” she says in upbeat voice.

“But it’s great to get the chance to make your own mark on the character.”

Yet, how to play a cartoon creation? Maggie has featured with the newspaper creation family since their Sunday Post conception in 1936. But the character outlines are as thin as the ink drawings?

“The idea is to try and bring some truth to the character,” says Kim, smiling.

“I’ll try and bring some of my own experiences to Maggie, about a young woman having boyfriends, wanting to grow up.”

Maggie wasn’t backwards when it came to moving forward towards the boys. “She knows what she wants and she goes for it.”

Is this a character trait of the actress?

“I think Maggie is a lot more glamourous than I am,” says Kim, laughing. “And I don’t have a boyfriend at the moment - I’m unlike Maggie in that way - although I’ve had a boyfriend most of my life.

“But like her, I do belong to a loving family, I have one sister.”

Kim adds; “Maggie has a heart, and what we know of the Broons is they all want the best for each other.”

The Broons, the theatre show that is, features Maggie in the central story line. We arrive into Broonsland at a time when Maggie is about to be married.

But this causes great consternation in 10 Glebe Street. Maw Broon worries about losing her daughter. The rest of the family re-think their own positions.

Joe wonders if he should have become a boxer. The Twins wonder if they should leave home. What they all fear is nothing will ever be quite the same again.

“Her engagement is the catalyst, the spark that ignites other family members’ journeys,” says Kim. “They all come to ask ‘What do we want from life?’”

Kim Allan took some time to decide what she wanted out of life.

“I wanted to act when I was younger, I did youth theatre until I was about fourteen.”

But why give it up? Boys?

“Yes,” she says, grinning. “Perhaps there are more parallels with me and Maggie than I had imagined.

The shift in focus was heightened when the family moved from Carmunnock on the Lanarkshire border to Strathaven.

“Carmumock was like Auchenshoogle,” she says of the Broons home town. “It’s a place where you know everybody.”

Kim studied for degree in Music. (She plays guitar, banjo and ukulele and is learning to play the piano.)

“I revisited acting later, and also did a degree in that.”

She adds, grinning; “I’m a bit indecisive like Maggie. It took me 23 years to work it out that I wanted to act.”

But the decision to act has paid off. This year Kim has appeared in the Sky One series The Five and the talented actress is set to be seen in new drama The Replacement for BBC1, alongside Dougray Scott.

Yet, does her role in the Broons offer a chance to shine, musically?

“Yes, and I sing, a song called I Remember You, by Frank Ifield, which features because it’s part of Granpaw’s story line.”

All of the Broons characters features in the play, by Rob Drummond. The writer has devised a piece in which there are as many subplots as there are characters, with each small story feeding into the larger one.

“It’s so nice to be a part of this,” says Kim. “So many people who come to see this show won’t have been in a theatre before. They’re coming to see the Broons.”

However, the Broons may not be the same family Sunday Post readers will remember from their childhood.

“Yes, they have been updated. In the last album cover they are seen taking a selfie.

“And now, Maggie and Daphne go on holiday to Portugal, not doon the watter.”

Does Maggie have a tattoo? “No, because I don’t have one,” she says grinning.

There’s no doubt Kim Allan will work as hard as is possible to make her Maggie as real as possible.

She’s ambitious, and driven.

“I can’t stay in my bed,” she admits. “I can’t sit still. As well as acting I’m in a folk collective and we appear at the Tron Theatre.

“I go to the the theatre at least once a week and I’m also in a theatre company Blood of the Young. I surf regularly and I’m learning to play the piano.”

She adds, grinning; “I’ve actually got adult colouring books to keep me occupied when I’m at home.”

Right now, she’s colouring in the character of Maggie.

“I am,” she says, smiling. “I’ve just had four inches taken off my hair so I can look more like her. Now, I have to be her.”

• The Broons features Kern Falconer as Granpaw, Paul Riley as Paw, Joyce Falconer as Maw, Tyler Colins as Hen, John Kielty as Joe, Laura Szalecki as Daphne, Kim Allan as Maggie, Euan Bennet as Horace, Kevin Lennon and Duncan Brown as The Twins, and Maureen Carr as the Bairn.

•The Theatre Royal, November 7 – 12.