By Brian Beacom

IF AT first you don’t succeed, try, try again - at least twelve times.

That was Michelle Collins experience, anyway.

We’ve long suspected the actress to be a determined character and not just from insight gained via Eastenders or Coronation Street, or 2000 Acres of Sky.

The single-mum – her daughter is now at university – has long shown herself to be a survivor in a fickle industry.

However Michelle, in Glasgow this week starring in flapper musical Thoroughly Modern Millie, is more dogged than a bloodhound.

The 55 year-old reveals she was so keen to become an actress she auditioned for drama school an incredible twelve times.

“I just knew that was what I wanted to do,” she says, smiling, looking relaxed and cosy in a soft grey baggy jumper and jeans.

“I wasn’t going to give up.”

Most people would have. If hopefuls don’t make it by the third attempt they generally give up.

Not Michelle, who attended grammar school in Islington.

“I decided I didn’t want to be academic,” she recalls. “I wanted to go to drama school, and I had this thing, the fearlessness, that young people have

“I was a bit of a stroppy teenager, but at the same time I was shy. And my older sister (Vicki) was a bit louder, and she tended to do the talking for me. So I guess I wanted to have a voice.”

Being turned down by every single drama school didn’t dent her desire, or her fearlessness.

“I remember the disappointment, I was miserable for a while, and to make it worse no one told me why I was being rejected.

“But I picked myself up.”

Michelle attended college and studied A level drama and determined to get her Equity card in fringe theatre.

However, she put acting to one side when she joined a pop band.

“I did a pop video for Squeeze and the director asked me if I wanted to become a backing singer in a band. I said ‘Oh, I don’t know, I’m not really a singer, and he said ‘It doesn’t matter – you look good.’ And I suppose I did, at the time.”

She became a singer with Mari Wilson and the Wilsations.

“There I was eighteen in a pop band and we once played in Glasgow in a bar in Sauchiehall Street.

“After the band Tim Roth got me into an actor’s co-op, and at twenty one I did my first professional job, a TV series with Gary Oldman.”

Michelle had ‘quite a nice career’ before Eastenders came along, at the age of 26.

“I think of myself as a grafter. I think it’s a working class thing and I’ve always thought of myself as someone who earns their own money.”

She adds, smiling; “Sometimes I may be a bit too independent. But that’s all part of being in this industry. And I think it’s in the genes. I got if from my mum, who was a a single parent.”

Michelle has worked constantly in her career, but it’s only in recent years she’s committed to touring theatre.

“I didn’t tour a lot when my daughter (Maia) was growing up because it was just too difficult. I wanted to be there when she came from school.

“But she’s at university now, although I do have a partner now so I have to make some allowances for that.”

Michelle enjoys touring. “I quite like my own company on tour. At home things are hectic.

“And this tour is only for six weeks – I was in Chitty for seven months - and it’s much more do-able.

“I’m very lucky. Some of my friends have never even been to Scotland and I get to catch up with old pals.”

In Millie, the story of an innocent who comes to town and becomes caught up in rivalry and romance, Michelle plays the evil white slaver, Mrs Mears.

“She’s a con woman, a bad actress and a bad chorus girl who fakes a Chinese character. She’s the silliest character I’ve ever played and the only way I can do her is to make a real fool of myself.”

Michelle adds; “I go from a Chinese accent to a New Yorker, and if nothing else it helps show versatility as an actor.”

That is certainly happening. Michelle has recently completed a film with Sheridan Smith, written by Jo Brand and a pilot for a sitcom with Jack Dee, Harry Hill and Brenda Gilhooley.

She produced a short film which won the Berlin Film Festival, and is now being made into a full-length feature.

And the Londoner is co-producing a new play in which she stars, A Dark Night in Dalston, being staged at the Park Theatre in Islington.

“It’s about loneliness and how people feel displaced and it’s very scary. And it’s about how this one night changes their lives.”

But covering the acting range is not Michelle’s only goal in life these days.

“Both my sister and my mum have gotten degrees later in life, so that’s something I want to do as well.

“I haven’t had the time over the past few years but I really want to do it. I think I would study Psychology. I’m interested in how minds work, and I’ve gained a bit of insight from working with actors.

“As I’ve got older I realise I still love acting, and I never want to give it up, but it’s not the be all and end all. I want to do other things as well.”

There’s a real sense the lady is excited by life. She’s also excited by her women’s group meetings Women In Media, a breakfast club she formed with a pool of a hundred women who turn up to hear different speakers.

“The idea is women get to air their views and their gripes and fears. Women in the industry can feel alone, or managed.”

Michelle is even excited about having wet towels on the bathroom floor again.

“My daughter comes home during breaks,” she says. “And even the towels on the floor are wonderful.”

• Thoroughly Modern Millie, the King’s Theatre, February 6-11.