TRACIE Bennett says if she won £25m on the lottery she would still want to work.

"I am a terrible lady of leisure, " says the Leigh-born actress whose performance as Judy Garland in the stage play End Of The Rainbow brought her acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic.

Her work ethic – a result of growing up in a "Northern gritty town where everything was black and white and you just got on with it" – isn't the reason she is in hospital at the moment. That's because she's in Wales filming the BBC1 series Casualty, reprising the role of a woman who enjoys being ill in hospital.

Then she's signed up for an Iranian film "which I have yet to discover about" to be shot in London, followed by a new series of ITV1's police series Scott & Bailey.

Before that she's joining the cast in The WestEnders for an eight-date tour that includes the Grand Opera House in York tomorrow night. The gala concert promises The World's Most Popular Musicals In Concert, with a cast who have all appeared in Les Miserables.

She may have played Madame Thenadier in Les Mis, butTracie will fill a Judy Garland slot in the show, no doubt on the back of End Of The Rainbow, which earned her both Olivier and Tony nominations. "The WestEnders have asked me to do Judy out of context of the play , which is brave of them," she says.

She's not worked before with the company that tours musical theatre shows around the UK and Europe, but has known the musical director, Jae Alexander, for a long time. This is where she turns angry at people who put down such concert shows.

"What gets on my nerves, and I'm sorry to say this, is people saying it's fine for a cruise ship. The people on cruises are spectacular. You get West End shows and we're all entertainers. It's fantastic and exciting," says Tracie.

Tracie is excited about The WestEnders show, while also pointing out "I am not Judy. There is only one Judy". She stresses she was playing a character in the play, not doing a Stars In Their Eyes impersonation.

"The play is a different thing. I'm an actress and that's what I do. It's quite strange for me not to be acting, but slotting into what the WestEnders format is, " she says.

While Tracie was having great success as Judy in this country and the USA, she was blissfully unaware of all the acclaim. "I didn't go out much at the time because I was on stage for two-and-a-half hours and then went home to bed, to be fed and watered, and sleep. To be honest, I didn't get much feedback so I don't know what anyone thinks because I've gone from job, to job, to job, " she explains.

First acquainted with musicals when watching film versions on television at Christmas as a child, she has appeared in Les Miserables and La Cage Aux Folles, as well as winning Olivier Awards for best supporting actress in a musical for both Hairspray and She Loves Me, her West End debut in her thirties as a comedy character blonde.

Which musical might she like to in the years ahead? "I'm a bit of an age and you have to have your business head on," says 52-year-old Tracie. "I can't play operatic, operetta, poperetta types, but I know that age-wise there are certain things I can do, musically speaking."

The WestEnders: The World's Most Popular Musicals In Concert, York Grand Opera House, tomorrow, 7.30pm. Box Office: 0844 8713024 or atgtickets.com/york