JENNIFER Saunders has had plenty of success working as part of a double act, first as one half of sketch comedy duo French and Saunders, and then with Joanna Lumley in Absolutely Fabulous (which actually began life as a French and Saunders sketch).

More recently she has been exercising a love for the stage, playing the Duchess of Berwick in a 2018 production of Oscar Wilde’s play, Lady Windermere’s Fan that had her treading the West End boards for the first time in 25 years. Now she is preparing to retain her starring role in the upcoming tour of Noël Coward comedy, Blithe Spirit, which will open with at Brighton’s Theatre Royal next February.

Blithe Spirit concerns a successful novelist who is haunted by the ghost of his first wife, after he hires an eccentric medium to assist his research for a new novel. The spirit of first wife then makes a series of attempts to disrupt his happier second marriage.

“It’s about so many things,” she says. “It’s about love and relationships and death and grieving and the supernatural and it’s funny. He (Noel Coward) makes it look easy because the dialogue is quite easy but actually it’s so dense and there’s so much in it.

“It’s very much a period piece and of-its-time, but even though it was written in 1941 it doesn’t mention the Second World War so you could actually set it whenever you like. It’s sort of in its own world.”

In that world Jennifer will be playing oddball medium and clairvoyant, Madame Arcati, which she describes as “one of those classic comedy roles for a woman of a certain age.”

“It goes into different energies. There’s a time where they think she’s a fool and you think she’s a fool, then you realise she isn’t at all.

“It’s quite hard to allow that to come across. She goes through a lot of different phases in the play and it’s not pure comedy either.”

“She’s somewhere between Hilda Baker and Barbara Woodhouse, I would say. She’s quite tweedy. She’s quite jolly and gung-ho so she’s fairly tweedy.”

Jennifer laughs when asked if she has noticed anything she has in common with the eccentric psychic.

“She does like a good sandwich, so I think we’re quite similar in that respect. A dry Martini and a sandwich is her idea of heaven and actually mine too.”

So no shared belief in seances and the supernatural?

“I think there’s probably a scientific explanation for everything ultimately” Jennifer says. “and also there’s something in our brains, you know? I don’t think it’s supernatural, I think it’s probably natural.”

The role of Madame Acarti has been taken on by plenty of formidable actresses over the years, such Dame Angela Lansbury and Gavin & Stacey’s Alison Steadman, but Jennifer says she had only ever seen Margaret Rutherford in the Oscar-winning 1945 film, so she “didn’t have any other influences.”

“Everyone has their own different way of doing comedy. It just sort of happens as you go through the text and think ‘Ooh, let’s do that’. Every actor is different.”

A new screen adaptation is scheduled for 2020 with Judi Dench taking on the role of Madame Acarti.

Blithe Spirit will be the first time that Jennifer has performed in a Noel Coward play.

“I’ve only done two plays before this... Me And Mamie O’Rourke, with Dawn in the early 90s, and Lady Windermere’s Fan in 2018.

“With Noel Coward the language is easy and it’s so close to our present-day language, but they invert words. There are also times where you think ‘What was that word again? Is it dreadfully rather than fearfully?’ I panic about learning lines but the other characters in the play... God, they’ve got an enormous number of lines. I take my bits out of the script and I look at the great wadge that’s left that they have to say and I think ‘Honestly, I really shouldn’t complain. They take the brunt of it’.

Why was there such a long gap between ventures out on stage?

“What put me off before was when the kids were growing up the last thing you wanted was to get them home from school, do all the stuff at home and then go off to the theatre.

“Just when normal people are sitting down to a gin and tonic you start work.”

The play will also be the first time that she has worked with director Richard Eyre (Notes on a Scandal, BBC’s The Children Act),who she describes as “fantastic.”

“Like anyone who’s brilliant, he just makes it seem very comfortable and easy as if they’re doing nothing at all but they are.

“It’s quite good to want to impress someone so you’re thinking ‘Come on, be better, be better!’ You never get over the idea of being a bit nervous and wanting to make someone laugh.”

Having been making people laugh for three decades now, how has the comedic landscape changed during that time?

“It’s just different now, I think. It’s harder to make jokes. People seem so sensitive about everything.”

“You say the wrong word and people are down on you whereas before you could generally make fun and everyone realised you were making a joke. I don’t think we could make half of Ab Fab nowadays.”

It’s a sad idea that characters such as addiction-fuelled ex-mod Edina Monsoon are no longer possible. Are these kinds of character as enjoyable to perform as it seems?

“They’re terrifically good fun to play and it’s nice that you don’t have to play any vanity to them at all. Making people laugh is honestly the best fun in the world and I like people who make me laugh so it’s like doing a job you appreciate.”

And is it easy to shake off these characters once the curtain has fallen?

“Before the curtains falls,” she laughs. “No, I’m joking! Absolutely joking. But gosh, yes, it’s comedy!”

Blithe Spirit will run at Brighton’s Theatre Royal from January 22-25