With six Carry Ons, two Bond movies and a leading role in a Hammer horror classic to her name, Valerie Leon has an unrivalled cult film CV. Next month she will be in Darlington for a screening of Blood from the Mummy’s Tomb, but admits to Nigel Burton that she’s no fan of horror

“I HATE horror films,” admits Valerie Leon cheerfully. “When they put the coffin lid on me I couldn’t wait to get out. It was awful.”

Valerie is talking about the film that made her a Hammer horror icon: Blood From The Mummy’s Tomb. It could, and should, have led to more roles in horror but in 1971, when it was made, Hammer’s brand of colourful Gothic horror was in terminal decline. The Exorcist and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre would be the final nails in the coffin a couple of years later.

Not that Valerie minds. Other horror roles didn’t come her way, but she was kept busy with Carry Ons, television work and two appearances in big budget Bond movies.

Valerie won the lead after Hammer’s boss, Sir James Carreras, over-ruled a decision to cast Shakespearean actress Amy Grant in a dual role – an Egyptian Queen and her modern-day reincarnation. “I did some charity work for him (Carreras was international president of Variety, the children’s charity) and he took me from playing comedy in Carry On Up The Jungle to horror in Blood from the Mummy’s Tomb,” remembers Valerie.

“Mind you, I still had to do a screen test. I’d worked for the director Seth Holt on a French film called Monsieur le Coq, as a stand-in for Julie Newmar, but never imagined that one day I would be his leading lady. It was very exciting.”

Unfortunately, the excitement didn’t last long.

The curse of the pharaohs has been a popular horror movie trope ever since Boris Karloff dragged his black-and-white bandaged bones across the screen in 1932, but until Blood from the Mummy’s Tomb the notion that opening a tomb would unleash a deadly run of bad luck always remained a fiction. Hammer’s fourth mummy movie was based on a short story written by Bram Stoker called The Jewel of Seven Stars, and the film itself was ill-starred from the beginning.

First the male lead, horror icon Peter Cushing, had to quit after just one day’s filming when his wife Helen fell terminally ill. Hammer gave the role to Andrew Keir, who had done sterling work on Quatermass and the Pit and Dracula Has Risen from the Grave.

“Poor Peter,” remembers Valerie. “He was such a gentle, lovely man. I only had one scene with him in the morning and by the afternoon he was gone. Andrew Keir came in and did a great job. He’d worked for Hammer before but he didn’t have the name, among horror fans, that Peter Cushing did. The role had been written with Peter in mind and I know Andrew thought it didn’t suit him.”

More terrible luck was to follow. A member of the art department was killed in a motorcycle accident, Andrew Keir fell down some stairs and hurt his back, Valerie herself fell ill and then, five weeks into film, the director died of a heart attack.

Michael Carreras, Sir James’ son, took over the shoot when director Don Sharp turned down an offer to start all over again. The need to finish the picture (Hammer’s production line methods meant Dr Jekyll and Sister Hyde was due to start filming the very next week) meant Valerie didn’t even get to attend Holt’s funeral. “I was crying so much the make-up people had a terrible time. They had to keep patching me up.”

Given such a disastrous birth it’s a wonder Blood… is as good as it is. For horror aficionados it is the best Hammer mummy film after the original, which starred Britain’s titans of terror Cushing and Christopher Lee, some say it may be even better. In more prosperous times, Hammer would have undoubtedly offered Valerie more horror work.

Instead, she returned to the bosom of the Carry On team, doing a TV Christmas special. Carry Matron and Carry On Girls. She also had plenty of television work, appearing in a memorable series of adverts for Hai Karate after-shave, Space 1999, The Goodies and The Morecambe and Wise Show, before roles in two Bond movies, The Spy Who Loved Me and Never Say Never Again.

Today, she is more popular than ever with admirers around the world. One of her most loyal fans, Paul Smith, lives in Houghton le Spring and Valerie very much hopes he will be able to make the special screening of Blood from the Mummy’s Tomb in Darlington on May 9. Paying tribute she says: “He’s been following my career for many years – a wonderful man.” On Sunday June 26, she’s also appearing at London’s Leicester Square Theatre with her new one-woman show, called Forever Carrying On.

Despite expressing a dislike of horror, Valerie says of her sole Hammer role: “I think the film turned out really well. Today, it’s considered something of a classic – it’s more fondly remembered than Dr Jekyll and Sister, which went out on the same double bill – and I’m really proud of that.

“It certainly touched some people who saw it in a most profound way. I remember getting a letter asking for a signed photo of me as Queen Tera from a man on death row in America. He said he thought it would help ease his journey into the next world.”

• Valerie will be appearing as the VIP guest at a screening of Blood from the Mummy’s Tomb, part of Darlington Film Club’s Hammer horror season, at the Forum, in Borough Road, on May 9, starting at 7.30pm.