ANNE Kidd is in Aberdeen, on the phone to chat about her new Oran Mor play, Flying With Swans, but as she speaks she's rushing across a busy road and dodging traffic.

"If I were in America I'd be fined for jaywalking," she says, laughing down the line. "But I'm forever rushing across roads. I can't help it."

The traffic dodging tale is a nice metaphor for Anne's professional life: she's a lady who likes to be on the move, to take chances.

Her acting career began at the Citizens' Theatre in Glasgow in the Sixties, a three year period she describes as amazing, followed by working on some of the most iconic television series, such as Dr Finlay's Casebook and Coronation Street.

She then moved to London for a couple of decades before returning back home where she's continued to work continually in theatre and in television.

This week she's still taking risks by appearing in a play that's very demanding of the three actors on stage. Jack Dickson's Flying With Swans tells of three elderly ladies, old friends who get together for the first time in many years for what should be a simple ferry trip to the Isle of Arran for the arrival of migrating whooper swans.

But the trip becomes the journey of a lifetime.

"We discover one of the friends has in fact escaped from a residential home, one suffers from dementia and the other one Dolly, who I play, is a one-time solicitor who happens to be very lonely.

"Dolly is very efficient, she likes an orderly world, but she doesn't have a proper friend."

Anne adds; "The play is demanding, but beautifully written."

Is it difficult for an actor of a certain age - Anne has now slid into her eighth decade - to play older people, particularly characters suffering from dementia. Is it too much of a light shining on what may lie ahead?

"I don't really see it that way at all," says the actress. "Age is creeping up on me, there's no doubt about it, but while some people feel old, I don't. In fact, I'm amazed I'm as old as I am. And I choose to think illness like that won't happen to me."

Anne adds, "Seventy is the new sixty these days. Isn't it. And how you feel depends how you think about things. Some are old before their time, and others don't ever think about senile dementia."

Indeed. Rod Stewart doesn't pay any attention to the fact he facing seventy. And why should he?

"Exactly!" she agrees. "Rod Stewart has the right idea."

Anne Kidd's determination to squeeze the juice out of life is reflected in the fact she reveals she loves touring theatre.

"It's great fun," she says. "It's a chance to see different places and have new experiences. Yes, you don't really want to do back-to-back tours, you need a break, but I love going out on the road."

Anne a hugely appreciative of the career she's enjoyed, appearing in the likes of Coronation Street, High Road, Tutti Frutti. and Shetland.

But although she has appeared in River City, she wouldn't want to like to be stuck in a long-running soap.

Perhaps the Coronation Street experience put her off?

"Some of the actors were charming, but some were ogres who treated me like absolute dirt," she says of the legends of the time.

"I wouldn't have wanted to be part of that environment."

"But there is another problem with soaps in that they just dump you when they feel like it.

"I was in River City for a while, and I really enjoyed it. But that show dumps actors as well. The danger is actors get used to the work, the money, and then have to cope with it."

Anne Kidd believes theatre produces great actors.

"But young people these days don't get the training we did," she sighs. "I did plays constantly at the Citz, but young people don't get the continuity, to learn from their mistakes."

l Flying With Swans, Oran Mor, lunchtimes, until Saturday.