Show went on for blinded actress

Clare was due to open in a production of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado, when a stagehand swung one of her bags on to his shoulder and hit her in the eye. The metal zip scraped across her eyeball.

She was instantly blinded in one eye and the shock made her lose her sight in the other.

She was rushed to hospital and was told she needed to keep her eyes bandaged for the week to repair the damage.

Clare decided that seeing or not, the show must go on. The press predicted she could not pull it off but her opening night performance, with bandages and an eye patch incorporated into her costume, won rave reviews.

Clare, of Waterloo Street, Hove, said: "My dresser was helping me with some bags. He picked one up and all I remember is an agonising pain and then blackness. People said I couldn't possibly go on stage but I decided to do it.

"There were five steps on the set which I managed, the chorus helped guide me around the stage and if I went too near the edge of the stage the orchestra would hiss 'pssst - too close'.

"It was an amazing experience. When you can't see you hear so much more and I think I concentrated much more on my voice. I got the best review I have ever had.

"I did the whole week there without seeing the theatre and funnily enough I have never seen it to this day."

Luckily, in time, Clare's sight returned and she was able to continue a career that stretched from the West End to internet adverts.

The vicar's daughter had intended to go to university but her heart belonged to singing and she won a place at the Guildhall School of Music.

She trained as an opera singer but then decided to follow her heart and moved to San Francisco to be a jazz singer.

Back in Britain she got her big break in the Lloyd Webber/Rice production of Evita with Elaine Paige and David Essex.

The director's favourite, she played no less than six roles, ranging from Evita's mother to a lesbian union leader.

But after 18 months she was going "stir crazy" singing the same songs night after night and decided to move on.

She said: "Even now if I hear someone start to sing Don't Cry For Me Argentina it makes go a bit strange."

Clare went on to become friends with some of the biggest names in the business, including John Nettles, Griff Rhys Jones, Bernard Cribbins, Michael Elphick, Rory McGrath and her favourite, Les Dawson.

"Les was the kindest, funniest man I have ever worked with. He had the audience in the palm of his hand and he would have the cast in stitches."

She had a year-long relationship with John Hurt, who took her to Hollywood at the height of his Elephant Man fame.

"He is a fabulous actor and used to read Shakespeare to me."

She also wined and dined with Sir Richard Attenborough, Mel Brooks and Peter O'Toole.

Once, following an audition, she got stuck in a broken down lift with two strangers and, being slightly claustrophobic, swore loudly about it.

One of the men, trying to calm her, told her how beautifully she had sung at her audition but Clare continued to rant. Only when she got out of the lift did she recognise Prince Edward.

Five years ago, Clare met singer/actor Mark Lanahan, a former hotel manager 12 years her junior.

Clare said: "Within three days of meeting him, I thought 'I'm going to marry this man'."

It was a surprise to Mark too.

He said: "I thought I would marry a 28-year-old Irish Catholic girl and have lots of babies. Instead I got a 45-year-old divorced vicar's daughter."

But the age difference - Clare is now 59 and Mark is 37 - is not an issue.

Clare said: "I'm a weighty mezzo and he is a big tenor so we're suited."

And although there are no babies, there is Norman, a six-year-old border terrier who has himself graced the stage at the National Theatre. He was appearing in Two Gentleman Of Verona with Mark and all was going well until Clare slipped into a seat at the back of the stalls to watch the show.

Norm could sniff her presence and bounded off the stage to sit with her. Of course he stole the show. Norman even has his own membership card of the private Gerry's Club in London.

Clare and Mark work together regularly and are due to film with one of their heroes, Norman Wisdom, in a project called The Balloon Man.

Clare has more recently appeared in a series of adverts for which she is constantly recognised.

She said: "I'm 'Wallace Arnold Woman' or 'the woman from the Bernard Matthews ads'."

She is also sometimes mistaken for Sue Lawley.

In the past two years Clare developed a chest problem and was wrongly treated for asthma. Her condition has now been diagnosed as farmers lung.

The condition is treatable but not curable. She is due to go into hospital today for a biopsy.

The illness has affected her ability to perform, so for the time being she is teaching. She works with pianist Jerome Lloyd, a former monseigneur in Rome who has also worked with Pavarotti.

Clare said: "It's dreadfully frustrating not being able to sing.

"As a teacher I'm quite tough and I can be quite rude. But when I'm finished with them, they are usually ten times better. These days too many people want a shortcut to success but I think they should do everything from baroque to opera first.

"However, I guarantee them an audition for a West End show or an opera or whatever."

Clare and Mark are both working locally in the coming months.

Assuming Clare is well enough, they will be appearing in Friday Night is Music Night at the Marlborough Theatre on January 31.

They are also part of Broadway Calling at the Old Market Theatre in May and will be taking part in the Brighton Festival.

Clare would love to have a shot at another West End role.

"My dream would be to be in Blood Brothers or Chicago - as long as someone could do the legs, I can't dance! - or to play Carmen again, the most difficult thing I have ever done."

In the meantime, she is watching young singers with interest.

She rates Pop Idol Will Young as having a "fine voice and knows what he is doing". Groups such as Blue and Busted also get the thumbs up.

But not so opera star Russell Watson. "He's just a big mimic. He's good at doing other people," she says.

While she waits for her chest to improve, she has been acting.

She recently made an advert for a new internet game, which involved being shot in the chest.

"I had never been shot before but I had to be bound up with wires and blood capsules and bulletproof stuff and earplugs.

"The gunman shot me and this device went off, blew through my shirt and covered me in blood. We had to shoot it eight times. Terribly messy but good fun."

She can be contacted for singing lessons on 07930 812645.