WHENEVER Claire Sweeney and her pals discussed bad date experiences, they’d invariably end up in fits of laughter.

And it was that laughter that sowed the seeds for her latest show, Sex in Suburbia.

“We’d tell each about our appallingly bad dates and get over the horror by laughing about them. Then, about two years ago, my close friend Mandy Muden and I started writing them all down in my front room with the notion of turning them into a comedy,” reveals Claire. “At first we weren’t sure if we were even funny but the play went down a storm last year when it opened in Liverpool.

“We take audiences through every emotion and they get up to dance and sing along to the anthems we’ve included, such as I’m Every Woman, I Want To Break Free and, of course, I Will Survive.”

The show is about love, romance and the quest to find Mr Right through the dating jungle. It’s centred around the host of a late night radio show, a leading agony aunt who takes calls about listeners’ dates from hell – and the occasionally one from heaven – and dishes out advice.

“In the original show I played a relationship expert but this time I play myself, a working mum with a baby. I decided to update it because my baby boy, Jaxon, has changed my outlook on life,” says Claire. “I’ve injected my own personal experiences of motherhood into the show.”

She has also “de-Scoused” the play so it will have a wider appeal. “But all the dating stories remain the same,” adds Claire.

“They can relate to everyone, wherever they’re from.”

Claire shot to fame playing fiery Lyndsey Corkhill in Brookside and went on to become a household name in TV dramas and musical theatre, starring in such shows as Guys and Dolls and Chicago.

Has she included any of her own experiences of dating in her new show?

“Yes, all the material comes from me and my friends. I’ve changed the names and places but a few of the dates are based on my experiences,” she says. “You have to laugh in the face of adversity don’t you? At first you go ‘woe is me’, then you turn it into a funny story.

“One of my mates found the macho man she was dating wearing a frilly rah-rah dress! And there’s a story of a man who wants to take his wife to a swingers’ club, but she’s reluctant.

"When he finally persuades her, she ends up loving it. He becomes jealous and they end up getting divorced.

“But there’s nothing vulgar about our show – we’ve made it sympathetic and most of all, amusing.”

These days eight-month-old Jaxon is the new guy in Claire’s life, and she has included anecdotes about pregnancy and breastfeeding in the play.

“Being a mum is the best and Jaxon is the love of my life,” she says.

lSex in Suburbia is at St George’s Hall on Thursday at 7.30pm. For tickets call (01274) 432000.