''I don't see it as a challenge all the time now, and I actually feel very proud that I had a part that is still being talked about. How good is that, when we did it in 1977?''
As for ex-husband Mike Leigh, Alison still speaks warmly of him and cherishes the work they did together, not to mention their two grown-up sons - Toby, who is an illustrator, and Leo, who's at film college:
"He's already made short films and documentaries, but not professionally. They're low-budget/no-budget things, but it's the way we all start, isn't it?
I'm dying for him to get famous so I can be in his movies. I might be a bit old, but they have grannies in films don't they?"
And could Alison contemplate organising the kind of elaborate wedding for them that her character in the new sitcom throws herself into?
"Well I certainly wouldn't go through all this - I wouldn't have the money to go through all this. I couldn't imagine myself in this situation, which is why it's fun for me to be in this house, pretending it's mine and all that.
"But my sons aren't planning to marry yet, as far as I know. I think they're too busy building their careers and just enjoying themselves, really."
Alison's own career is built not only on her enormous CV of television and film work, but also on an Olivier Award-winning stage performance in The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, an OBE (matching her ex-husband's) awarded in 2000 for services to drama, and an honorary doctorate conferred by the University of Essex last year.
Just think on that - she who created ultimate Essex girl Beverly, carrying off an honorary PhD from the local Uni Fiction doesn't get any stranger than that.
* The Worst Week of My Life starts on Friday, BBC1, 9pm
