Katherine MacAlister talks to the stage actress Lynsey Beauchamp

Everyone has seen the classic film It’s A Wonderful Life, but will it translate on to the stage?

Throw in a cast playing radio actors and the plot thickens, but according to actress Lynsey Beauchamp it works brilliantly, and she should know – it’s her favourite film.

“This adaption is set in the austerity years in 1949 which gives it a different flavour,” she says.

“It’s very entertaining so we are having a lot of fun with it, and all multi-role, playing all the parts between us. The radio element just enriches it.”

Tipping the hat to the live Fitzrovia Radio shows, the cast is hoping to take the play on to London’s West End, and Lynsey says they can’t wait to see the audience’s reaction at Oxford’s Playhouse next week.

So what is it she likes so much about It’s A Wonderful Life? “It’s an incredible film and while many people think of it as schmaltzy, the super shine doesn’t hide the intense power of the movie which gives it a real edge. Because it does have a dark side, which ensures that it’s still relevant today,” she explains.

It meant that when offered the chance to feature in this new play, Lynsey jumped at the chance. “I love the film so much I’d see it in any format: film, radio, play, opera…” she says, laughing. “It’s such a wonderful story and so nostalgic.”

Lynsey is also revelling in the opportunity to come back to Oxford, where she studied while taking a calculated break from her acting career.

“I suddenly felt out of my depth in many of the roles I took on because I simply hadn’t read the classics having left school at 17 to go to drama school. So I applied to Oxford University to read English Lit and got into St Hilda’s as a mature student and had a really wonderful time.”

Resurrecting her acting career afterwards, the break obviously stood her in good stead because Lynsey went on to travel the world and star in some real blockbusters: Babel with Brad Pitt in Morocco, the film Supergirl with Faye Dunaway and Peter Cook, with stage performances in Closer in Russia and Hamlet in Iraq.

So what was appearing in a Brad Pitt movie like? “Filming Babel was amazing. We were in an outpost on the edge of the desert in Morocco, and it was an fascinating to be involved in making a blockbuster and how the whole machine works. Lynsey said the temperatures got up to 40 degrees during filming and that it was absolutely sweltering.

“But even though it was hot, dusty and dry and we spent four weeks in the desert, it was an amazing experience,” she remembers.

In Russia, Lynsey appeared on stage just after Glasnost and said the contrast between the average citizen and the emerging rich class was astonishing, staying up late playing poker and drinking vodka on the train between Moscow and St Petersburg.

Iraq, was another world entirely, pre-Saddam Hussein’s fall, where Lynsey said they got the drama about a deposed prince very easily. “It was almost prophetic,” she adds.

“I’ve been so lucky. Maybe I’ve got a guardian angel too, just like George Bailey in It’s A Wonderful Life.”

It’s a Wonderful Life, June 16-20, Oxford Playhouse