Mother-In-Law jokes are a scream - as long as they're about someone else. But to be the person actually living out the role they can be decidedly unfunny.

The best sort of mothers-in-law are said to live interstate. while the worst would be the bossy type who believes her view of things is the only right one.

If that rings a bell then the play Sailor, Beware will resound with a cacophony. The comedy, which opens at the marian Street Theatre on November 20, stars Maggie Kirkpatrick as an in-law you would only wish on Saddam Hussein.

It is set in England in the 1950s and the action concerns the lead-up to a family wedding. The sailor boyfriend of the title role pulls out of the wedding in order to get the better of his prospective mother-in-law.

But true love triumphs and Emma, the old bat, gets her come-uppance. Says Maggie: "Mother repents the sense and sensibility triumph."

The play makes her laugh a lot, but she also gets a buzz from delving into the social mores of the English working-class of the period.

"Young girls in 1955 were a carbon copy of their Hollywood idols and (on the subject of marriage) the wedding was seen as the most important day in a girl's life - the importance placed on everything going according to plan, with no consideration given to the rest of their lives. " she says.

Despite Sailor, Beware being a period piece, Maggie insists that in director Peter Whitford's hands, it has the capacity to delight and still strike a chord in the 90s.

"Whatever you call Emma's wedding - emotional blackmail or bull-at-a-gate bullying - it's just that basically she doesn't believe anyone is good enough for her daughter. " she says.

"What happens probably goes on everywhere, with varying degrees of intelligence. I'm sure there are manipulating women in all areas of society.

"Finally, Emma's going to be likeable - that's my job, because one wants the laughs to be of recognition rather than derision."

All the same, if anyone takes a dim view of Emma, it will be nothing new for the actress who is "hated" world-wide, as her one-time alter-ego, the Freak in Prisoner.

And now Maggie is becoming a mother-in-law in real life to her daughter Caitlin's man, Michael. "I don't interfere, although Michael might say otherwise," she smiled.

"Turning 50 this year has knocked Maggie Kirkpatrick sideways. "There's this awful let-down of suddenly feeling you're on the garbageheap, emotionally and professionally." she says.

Then she speaks of yearning to do a quality TV series dealing cleverly and amusingly with aspects of ageing, along the lines of The Golden Girls.

"I look at that show with much envy," she adds.

By Janise Heaumont.