CRISSY Rock’s new play is a matter of life and death – but that does not mean the comedian and actor has stopped having fun.

The Benidorm star’s production, Seriously Dead, is a humourous exploration of our preoccupation with mortality and what could happen when we draw our last breath.

Crissy came up with the idea with her co-star and friend Leah Bell when the pair were touring with Dirty Dusting.

“We ended up chatting to pass the time away and then all of a sudden we had this idea about writing a play together,” the 58-year-old said.

“Everyone looks back on their lives and everyone is afraid of death.

“Some people have become so frightened of dying that they don’t know how to live.

“Then you see these people who are dying and at the moment of death it’s so peaceful. So if it’s so peaceful why have you got to be afraid of it?

“Then when you do die people have got different ideas about what happens. Are you sitting on clouds waiting at the gates?

“Personally, I’m not frightened of dying. I’m frightened of how I’m going to die

“But then I think if I die I’m going ‘home’ – and I’m going home saying I’ve had this amazing journey.”

If you think the above sounds a bit heavy for a night at the theatre fear not because Seriously Dead is full of Crissy’s trademark tongue-in-cheek humour.

The comedy play takes place over one day in the quiet little town of Olwinskirk when a chain of extraordinary events brings Betty, Albert, Billy and undertaker Tristan de Winter to a crossroads 10 years after a bank robbery.

Crissy and Leah deliberately wanted to use comedy to touch on the serious issues in the play.

She added: “That’s the two masks isn’t it? Comedy and tragedy. They run together in most dramas.

“It’s not about doom and gloom. It has a chain of events which are funny and that people can relate to.”

Crissy has found comedy to be empowering in that way throughout her whole career.

In her youth she was abused by her grandfather and then fell into an abusive marriage and so when she discovered stand-up she saw it as an ‘escape’.

Crissy, who is working on a book about growing up in Liverpool in the 1950s and 60s, said: “The only place that I felt at home was on a stage because nothing could get to me on that stage and I could be someone different.

“So whatever I had going on personally or in my head just didn’t matter because I wasn’t there anymore. I was just a person on the stage.

“So to me it was like my living room and the audience had come around to see me for a cup of tea and I was entertaining them.

“It was only place that I felt safe and I embraced it and I learned how to use it.

“When you first start it’s hit and miss. It’s like having a bike. If you take the stabilisers off you fall off and get back up again. Before you know it you can pedal.

“When you’re a comedian the audience is like a dog. They can smell fear and if they smell fear they go for you.

“So you’ve got to make sure you’re as comfortable as possible up there even if they don’t laugh and you can hear a pin drop.

“I look at the audience when I’m walking in and I can judge how it’s best to do my act.

“Is this a naughty show? Is it a clean show? I’ve done it enough years to have a quick glance and be able to tell on the spot.”

Crissy enjoyed an award-winning turn in Ken Loach’s 1994 film Ladybird, Ladybird.

She has also starred alongside the late Warrington actor Pete Postlethwaite in BBC’s Butterfly Collectors and worked with Ricky Tomlinson in Jimmy McGovern’s BAFTA nominated play Dockers.

But Crissy is probably best known for Benidorm, a British sitcom about holidaymakers in Spain.

She added: “Benidorm is 10 this year and I’ve just taken part in a 10 year special which is coming out this Christmas. It brings me back because I was there for seven years.

“I think it was successful because everyone who watched it saw a piece of themselves. It’s amazing how people relate to things even those who hadn’t been before they saw the show.”

DAVID MORGAN