When Leah Bell describes Dirty Dusting as being like listening to your “nana tellin’ yer about her sex life”, it sounds like the worst sell in history.

Yet the comedian, director and actress, whose latest role is as part of a trio who sets up a sex line in a cleaners’ office, says, “I can see older people laughing and younger people going, ‘Oh, me toes are curling up. I’m so embarrassed.’

“It’s very funny and totally ridiculous, but it’s going down a bomb. People are up dancing at the end – I’ve never done anything like it before.”

Dirty Dusting, penned by Ed Waugh and Trevor Wood, follows three cleaners of pensionable age (Bell plus Benidorm and I’m A Celebrity star Crissy Rock, and Dolores Porretta-Brown, formerly of Emmerdale and Coronation Street), who are rubbish at their jobs.

The office is due for a refurbishment and the manager (Jason Jones of Hebburn fame) is delighted the three are going to be made redundant. When a chance phone call to a local sex shop up the street comes through – the punter has dialled a wrong number and wants a sex chat line – the trio decide to set their own up to make as much money as they can before they get the bullet.

After all, their age and appearance won’t matter on the telephone, providing they can keep this a secret from their boss.

“It’s got a lot of energy,” says Bell. “What a great thing it is to laugh all night and not have anything dreary going on.”

  • Dirty Dusting, Royal Hippodrome, Seaside Road, Eastbourne, Wednesday, March 26
  • Starts 7.30pm, £20. Call 01323 412000 or visit www.royalhippodrome.com