OOH... BETTY &

Michele Dotrice shot to fame as the long-suffering wife of TV’S most accident-prone bloke, Frank Spencer. In the 1970s viewers feared for young Mrs Spencer’s sanity as her raincoat-clad spouse fell through ceilings, roller-skated under articulated lorries and panicked over cat whoopsies.

Yet those plaintive cries of “Ooh, Betty” turned beret-wearing Frank – played by Michael Crawford – into a national icon and Some Mothers Do ’Ave ’Em won a place in sitcom history.

It also landed the then 24-year-old Michele a slap across the face from her actress mother, Kay.

For in health and safety-free 1973 she had joined Michael in one of his famous stunts – dangling over the edge of a cliff.

Michele, 71, recalls: “Michael became famous for doing his own stunts in the show. In this particular episode Betty and Frank had gone to the coast for a picnic in a borrowed car which, of course, ends up hanging over a cliff.

“They clamber onto the roof, so there we were, on top of this Morris Minor perched on the edge of a 200ft drop. I was in a strappy summer dress, a hat and high heels and had one bit of cotton thread tied around my ankle with someone holding the other end.

“That was my only safety equipment. When it came out on the Thursday night I sat down at home with my parents and two sisters to watch it. But when it finished Mum got up, came over and slapped me saying, ‘Don’t you EVER do anything so stupid again.’

“And, looking back now, I can’t believe what we got away with.”

Scrapes like that made Frank and Betty the most famous TV couple of the era. But Michele’s real husband could not have been more different to her wimpy, walking-disaster TV one. She was married to tough-guy actor

Edward Woodward, star of crime dramas Callan and The Equaliser. And, while screen hubby and real hubby never actually met, Michele believes they share a special connection which ended up with Michael coming back into her life after Edward died 11 years ago at 79.

The couple first met in 1959 when Michele was just 11.

Edward, 29, was appearing in Romeo and Juliet at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre alongside her dad, award-winning thespian Roy Dotrice.

Michele made her own stage debut at three weeks old – carried on by her mother as her parents starred together in rep.

Her two sisters,yvette, 60, and Karen, 64, are also actors. At the age of 10, Karen played Jane Banks in the original Mary Poppins movie.

Michele’s first TV role was in the 1962 adaptation of The Old Curiosity Shop and she also starred in Hammer movie The Witches and other horror films.

In 1973, as she landed the role of Betty, Edward was making cult movie The Wicker Man. The following year they starred together in a West End play and fell in love.

He was married with three children but later got divorced and wed Michele in New York in 1987.

The ceremony was attended by their three-year-old daughter, Emily. Later

peaking of those days, Michele adds: “We moved back from America to our home in Padstow, Cornwall. I did bits of TV like Bramwell, Midsomer Murders and Holby City but in 2003 Edward was diagnosed with prostate cancer and, as his health deteriorated I had to do more caring.”

After a fall he developed pneumonia and died in November 2009.

Michele says: “Losing my darling boy broke my heart. It’s such a terrible loss.”

But she used those feelings of isolation to great effect in her latest role. Michele