PRUNELLA Scales, famous for her role as Sybil in Fawlty Towers, is bringing a very different character to life in An Evening with Queen Victoria at the Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham on Thursday and Friday, July 7 and 8.

While both ladies ruled their respective domains with unwavering determination and solid disposition, An Evening with Queen Victoria gives an insight into the girl and woman behind the crown.

The production has been created from Victoria's own words taken from diary entries, letters and other writings and they range from the young princess who hated lessons but loved opera and dancing, to the old lady in her last days at Osborne.

The show reveals a contradictory and somewhat surprising person - vivid and emotional yet nervous and shy, puritanical and pleasure loving, proud but sympathetic. Most endearing is her own honesty and her trenchant and humorous responses to events and people.

Performing the music that Victoria enjoyed - most of it unknown today - are Ian Partridge (tenor) and Richard Burnett or David Owen Norris (piano). Tickets from the box office on 01242 572573 or www.everymantheatre.org.uk