The Rocky Horror Show is renowned as the musical where the performers have to deal with shouted insults. Roxanne Pallett tells Steve Pratt she doesn’t mind in the least. The actress playing virginal Janet reckons she’s more upset when the audience sits quietly

ROXANNE PALLETT asks the first question. “Did you like it?,” she inquires. Happily I can report that I did or I might have been in trouble.

She says that one reviewer was less than enthusiastic and she has noted his name. So be warned anyone who criticises The Rocky Horror Show, currently on its 40th anniversary tour with Oliver Thornton as the gender-challenged Frank-n-Furter and former Emmerdale and Waterloo Road actress Roxanne as the innocent (but not for long) Janet.

It’s the morning after the first night at Sunderland Empire where Richard O’Brien’s show received a rapturous welcome from an audience, many of whom had dressed for the occasion – stockings, feather boas, doctor’s white coat – as Rocky Horror fans feel obliged to do.

They also shout out lines – and abuse – at the characters as clean-cut Brad and Janet discover there’s more to (sex) life than kissing in the back seat at the drive-in.

The show has come as a surprise for Pallett because she didn’t know it beforehand. “I’d never seen it, although obviously it’s so iconic and I knew the Time Warp from weddings. I prefer not knowing going into a role that’s so iconic. You don’t want to do a carbon copy of someone else. I give Janet my own signature,” she says.

O’Brien was very hands-on with the casting and had already been to see the show three times. “It’s his baby. You have to respect the original material and not change too much,” she says.

“I’ll probably watch the film once I’ve finished in the show. I don’t like to overindulge when it comes to my roles. I don’t go off and research, but just go for how I feel.”

THE inspiration for Janet came from high school prom queens and straight-A students. Those girls who are perfectly sweet and innocent. Wholesome, you might say, until Frank-n-Furter corrupts her and geeky Brad with his own outrageous take on sexuality.

She began the tour with Sunderland’s Ben Forster, winner of ITV and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Jesus Christ Superstar competition, as her Brad. They’ve become good friends, not least because he was Pallett’s mum’s favourite Jesus.

“I was filming and missed the Superstar show,” says Pallett. “But we have a great relationship off-stage, like brother and sister, and we’ve been sharing digs on tour.

He’s a friend for life. It’s really lovely if you can make one friend from each project.”

Now the show has reached York, she has a new Brad with Dancing On Ice champion and former EastEnders actor Sam Attwater taking over the role. “I’m going to feel like I’m on my second marriage. I said to Ben it’s like I’m going to be cheating on you.”

The audience, you can guarantee, will be as noisy and interactive as before. “I love it when they shout out. People say don’t you get offended, but I get upset when they don’t shout out, if they sit quietly like it’s a play. They are as much a part of the show as we are,” she says.

“A friend said don’t you get bored doing the same show every day and I explained it’s not the same, it all depends on the audience.”

This is only her second professional musical show, following a tour of Rock Around The Clock. “I’m glad I did that first because it was small scale and was like my apprenticeship,” says Pallett.

“I’ve never had any training, no singing lessons. I’ve learnt on the job. It was important to do Rock Around The Clock so I was ready for this – my first lead in a big musical and playing such a iconic character.”

She still gets stopped in the street by people who recognise her from her Emmerdale role of Jo Sugden, who featured in a domestic abuse storyline. “I’m really proud of it – my character and the response of the public to the story. I look back on it with huge affection and they left the door open for me,” she says.

Before Rocky Horror, she starred in a new British horror movie Defil’s Tower with Frances Rufelle and Jason Mewes. It was a hard 18-hour day shoot and an emotional character.

“I don’t use a cry stick, I use emotional memories to cry on screen, to the point I almost needed counselling.

I was an emotional wreck. But the more battered and bruised you are, emotionally and physically, you’ve give your best to that character.”

  • The Rocky Horror Show: York Grand Opera House, April 8-13. Box Office: 0844- 8713024 and atgtickets.com/York