'No regrets' says Rula (From Gazette Series)

'No regrets' says Rula

Polish countess Rula Lenska is soon to appear in the comedy Losing Louis.

She talks to Catherine Turnbull about her experiences in the Big Brother household and a charity that is close to her heart.

Celebrity Big Brother contestant Rula Lenska says she has no regrets about entering the Big Brother house despite the infamous moment when MP George Galloway got on all fours and pretended to lick milk from her cupped hands.

"Big Brother was an experience I wouldn't have missed for the world because I like facing challenges and I did come out of it with my dignity intact.

"The milk scene was set as a task to find out whether humans could communicate with animals. There was nothing going on between George and myself and it was not intended to be sexual at all. The way that it was filmed was suggestive and I was astounded at all the fuss about it being salacious."

Rula is about to appear in the comedy Losing Louis by Simon Mendes de Costa which also stars David Horovitch, Alison Steadman and David Cardy.

Losing Louis tells the story of the strain of a family reunion following the death of their father, causing moments of ghastly social embarrassment for two brothers and their wives, with side-splitting results.

Set in the bedroom of the family home, Losing Louis is billed as ingeniously interweaving past and present to give a poignant insight into family secrets that continue to affect their lives.

Rula said: "It's a black comedy set in the past and present, which starts at a funeral and I play one of the wives, who have nothing in common. It has been a joy to do."

On Celebrity Big Brother, Rula said: "One of the reasons I agreed to go on Celebrity Big Brother was to raise money for one of my favourite charities the Daphne Sheldrick Wildlife Trust that looks after elephants in a national park near Nairobi in Kenya.

"I have become deeply involved in it. It is a great charity because the money is not swallowed up by admin. I have been involved in several television programmes about endangered wildlife as it is something I care deeply about. My book, Mammoth Hunt, is about an expedition I went on to find out if a large elephant that had been sighted was the missing link between extinct mammoths and modern elephants. It turned out to be just a large elephant."

Rula, 60, started her career on the stage and became famous as Q in Rock Follies on television in the 1980s. Leading roles followed in Boon, Minder, Cluedo and more recently in Footballers' Wives.

She was married to Minder star Dennis Waterman for 11 years and the national papers loved to speculate about posh Rula and her bit of rough. Later she married Brian Deacon with whom she has a daughter, Lara. Rula is now single.