SHERIDAN SMITH EXCLUSIVE: I’m so in love we’re talking about having a baby

SHERIDAN SMITH is returning to the West End for the first time in three years, as the Narrator in a new version of the Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice classic, Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

‘I was nervous about going back into theatre in London,’ the award- th winning actress told me, referring to the time she had to drop out of her run in Funny Girl, back in 2016.

But her life has changed since that troubled period. She is engaged to boyfriend Jamie Horn, and they own a farm just outside London, where they keep donkeys, pigs and horses — as well as several dogs. 'It's like Noah’s Ark,’ she joked.

Once upon a time, she recalled, she would fall out of the Groucho Club in Soho in the early hours. Now, when she’s not filming or on stage: ‘I’m often in bed by eight.’

‘Most importantly, my sanity has returned,’ the actress said.

Sheridan, 37, can remember her parents saving up so she could go on a school trip to see Phillip Schofield play Joseph at the Palladium.

‘For me, it’s like the most nostalgic show,’ she says.

‘Later, we did it at school. I wore a purple T-shirt. It’s all coming back . . . I remember singing Go-Go-Go Joseph with the other children.'

Sheridan was attracted to the musical (which will start previews on June 27) for several reasons: one being that she has never played the London Palladium.

ALSO, director Laurence Connor and producer Michael Harrison are going to expand the role of the Narrator, and introduce more comedic elements for her, while staying true the original version. But there’s another factor, too. ‘If you sign for a musical, you've got to do a year. But this is a summer season, for ten-and-a-half weeks, she explains.

‘Plus, it’s lovely to be part of an ensemble — it’s a nice way of going back into the West End where there won’t be the pressure of me carrying a show.

‘I can’t believe that there's no talking — just singing. And the songs are catchy! Everyone knows that

because we all did Joseph when we were at school.’

Life on the farm has helped soothe her soul, she said. ‘Me and my fella have turned into a bit of a grandma and grandad. We get up really early. We feed the donkeys, then go feed the pigs. Sometimes I’ll take the horses out and go hacking. It’s so different from what I used to get up to a couple of years ago,’ she adds, marvelling at her good fortune.

‘Sometimes I’m in bed by eight. Gone are the days of me falling out of the Groucho Club at three in the morning. I feel that it’s my little sanctuary, away from the madness. Having to care about things other than yourself is healing. Animals don’t judge you.’

Sheridan said she and her fiance have been discussing the idea of starting a family — something she would never have contemplated a couple of years ago.

‘I just never pictured myself as a wife and mother, but Jamie is making me so happy that we’re able to have these conversations about our future. We’ll see what happens.

‘I love being a “farmer’s wife”, though. And Jamie calls himself a farmer’s husband. We’re not married yet, but we’re enjoying being engaged and marriage is the next step,’ Sheridan told me on the phone from Manchester, during a break from preparation for her role in TV drama The Barking Murders.

The BBC series is about the serial killings carried out by Stephen Port, who was jailed for life last year. Sheridan will portray the mother of one of Port’s four victims.

She will be filming until the end of April, and then begin rehearsals for Joseph in May.

Producer Michael Harrison said it’s a ‘major coup’ to be bringing Smith back to the London stage.