Hayley Mills gets ready to check in to Exotic Marigold Hotel

From Tuesday she will be part of the star-studded cast of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel when it arrives at The Lowry as part of a UK tour.

Based on the book by Deborah Moggach it’s the tale of a group of senior citizens who book into an Indian hotel and get far more than they bargained for.

“Honestly, it’s a joyful thing to be part of,” said Hayley, who has been a leading figure in both film and theatre since she was a child.

“It is such a lovely story and beautifully cast and everybody leaves the theatre on a high thinking life isn’t quite so bad and that there are unexpected possibilities and openings.

“It reminds you that life is constantly renewing itself however old you are.”

Many people may know the story through the hit movie version but this is the first time that the book has been brought to the stage.

“It’s both a challenge and a privilege to be part of a new play,” said Hayley. “It means you get to be part of the creative process and you can help shape the work alongside the writer which is very unusual.”

A youthful 76, Hayley believes that the central message of the show is something everyone should take on board.

“Getting old is completely an attitude of mind,” she said. “People see themselves as being old for different reasons. Maybe their health isn’t very good or they have been disappointed again and again or maybe they are just lonely. But you have to try and remember that every day is opportunity and that not to appreciate things and live in moment is to squander your life. After all, you’re never going to get that time back.

“In the play you have these seven very different characters going off to India and they all discover something in their own lives from that experience. That’s really why I wanted to do it. It’s what people need to go and see now.”

The cast also includes Rula Lenska and Paul Nicholas. Paul actually took part in the TV series inspired by the book which took a number of celebrities to India to see how the elderly were treated there. But would be that something Hayley would be open to?

“You know, I probably think I would," she admitted. “After all you never know what’s coming down the line so you should take every opportunity when you can.

“That’s one of the things the play is very good at - it celebrates the positive things that come with getting older; the understanding of wisdom and other people and even life.”

Hayley has noticed that as the tour has progressed around the UK, life has started to imitate art.

“The company is made up of people in their 70s and people in their 20s and 30s.” she said. “The oldies like me appreciate the young ones so much and the young one appreciate the older members of the company and their attitude towards life and work.

“When you get to our age you have gone beyond scrabbling for recognition and letting ego get in the way. I think that the younger cast members get to appreciate that if we are lucky we are all going to get old so we might as well as enjoy it when we do.”

After its stop at The Lowry, Marigold Hotel is due to criss cross the country until June.

“The secret is to try and get home when you can,” said Hayley. “Living out of a suitcase and bumping along a station platform can be a bit exhausting and nervewracking too.

“One member of the cast put it rather well when she said she had to go home occasionally ‘otherwise the play becomes my reality’. I think it’s important to touch base with your own reality at times. Oh, and to do the laundry!

“I’ve been doing this for most of my life one way and another. I started off in the movies when I was 12 and I was around 20 when I did my first theatre production - Peter Pan - and after that I’ve been all over the place with various productions down the years.”

Most recently Hayley has toured with her sister Juliet in Noel Cowards’ Fallen Angels which went to Australia and the King and I which took her to America.

“When I was much younger and had small children at home that was really hard,” she said. “But sometimes you haven’t got a choice, that’s how you pay the bills.

“Having said that now I get restless if I’m at home too long and not going anywhere. I need to see fresh scenes out of the window.”

While Marigold Hotel is at The Lowry, Hayley is hoping to find time to pay a visit to a place with very special memories for her - the village of Downham in the Ribble Valley where Whistle Down the Wind, the film which made her career was filmed in 1961.

“I have deeply fond memories of Downham,” she said. “That film was a game changing thing for a lot of people. It was a real English movie shot on location in black and white. We’d be in our wellies in the cold standing around in anoraks drinking mugs of hot sweet tea. What an experience.”

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, The Lowry, Salford Quays, Tuesday, November 8 to Saturday, November 12. Details from www.thelowry.com