Meet the family

Posh and Becks may be their new neighbours, but last week the Dotrice sisters swapped Los Angeles for Guernsey. In this exclusive interview, Shaun Shackleton speaks to Disney legend Karen, 'Some Mothers' star Michele and The Equalizer - aka her husband, Edward Woodward - and discovers the fun side of acting royalty

And as for the chance to interview a Disney legend, Betty Spencer and Callan all in one sitting, well, you're talking once in a lifetime.

So how nervous was I as I drove to St Pierre Park?

I needn't have been. They were all sitting relaxing in the lounge bar.

Karen Dotrice, 52, and her children Bella, 12, and Griffin, 11, who live in Los Angeles, have been travelling around England for a month.

They joined Michele, 59 (who hasn't changed a bit since Some Mothers), and her husband, Edward Woodward (still as cool as Callan), in Cornwall and they all decided to come over to Guernsey.

'Edward and I haven't been to Guernsey for 22 years,' said Michele. 'Karen came over from Los Angeles, so it was a last-minute thing. We came over on the ferry. The children had a great time gambling on the slot machines.'

'If I ever get my hands on Noel Edmonds, I'll kill him,' joked Karen.

'I lost about £200 on that Deal or No Deal machine.'

'I'd have dived off the ship if I'd known that,' said Edward.

I'd been with them for minutes but already it was clear that this was just a normal family who also happened to be famous. And who have a very soft spot for Guernsey.

'Daddy's still heartbroken that the Little Theatre burnt down,' Karen told me.

'We went on a pilgrimage today,' said Michele. 'Karen was born in Guernsey and I was brought up here.'

'Where?' I asked.

'St Peter Port,' said Michele. 'Victoria Road.'

'Oh, Viccy Road,' I said.

'Viccy Road,' laughed Karen, as if she'd used the same nickname a thousand times.

'We went to Jessop's to get our videotape and we were nearly caught up in the one-way system from hell. We were so excited.'

'That's where granny lived, that's where we grew the veg, that's where you dropped me from my pram...' recounted Michele.

'And you tried getting over the wall,' added Bella.

'Michele tried climbing over the wall of our old house,' explained Karen.

'Don't tell him that!'

This is obviously a very close-knit family who all feel completely at home with each other and they draw you in. By this time I'd realised that most of my carefully researched questions were just not necessary.

It was Edward's turn to pitch in. 'Michele and I came over to Guernsey years ago when I was doing The Equalizer, absolutely fed up with where we were living. Because Michele was brought up here, I thought we had status to live here. But it was so complicated.'

Part of this self-imposed family pilgrimage was to travel all over the island, seeing if much had changed since their last visit.

'That's what's astounded me,' said Michele. 'The lack of expanse. I was expecting high rises and skyscrapers but it hasn't changed a bit. It's so clean and people take pride in their properties. It's so unexpected. You haven't been Tescoed.'

I told them we had a Safeway.

'Ah, but you've probably put it underground like the German hospital,' said Edward.In 2004, Karen was dubbed a Disney Legend at a ceremony in Burbank, California, for her roles in The Three Lives of Thomasina and Mary Poppins.

I asked Bella what it was like having one of those as a mother.

'Really weird. When people find out, it's, ?Gosh, she's a Disney Legend?. But it doesn't really change her being my mom - she's really cool.'

Against her mum's better judgement, Bella has just signed up to become an actress.

Is Griffin going to follow the family trade?

'No, I'm not. I want to be a football player. Not British football, American football. It's really cool.'

I said I'd always wanted to watch a game between an American football team and a British rugby team.

'You're a sadist,' said Karen, laughing.

'The Brits would win hands down,' Edward reckoned.

'A friend of Roy's, Gary Newbaum, gets signed David Beckham shirts for my son, Garrick, who's 17. But they end up on eBay.'

I told Edward that his LPs were swapping hands on the site for big money.

'It makes me sick,' he said in mock disgust. 'I'm not getting anything for them. I was looking around an old market in Tavistock and saw one of my old records. I didn't have a copy of it. ?How much??, I asked the bloke. ?You can have it for a fiver,? he said.

I went back next week and said: ?Do you know how much it's worth? £120.? He's scouring the country for other copies now.'

One of Edward's most famous movies is The Wicker Man. I asked if he had fond memories of it.

'Me and Edward went to Scotland recently to do a TV show on the top 10 British films,' said Michele. 'Five years ago, on the location where the wicker man had stood, they had embedded some feet into the ground and put up a commemorative plaque. They filmed Edward there at the site, talking about the film, but the feet and the plaque had gone. Someone had taken them and sold them on eBay.'

'It must've been Nicolas Cage,' said Karen, referring to the dreadful remake of the film in which he starred.

'I was asked to be in it, but I didn't want to,' said Edward. 'My son, Peter, is about to star in a film with Nicolas Cage. He said to Peter, ?Hey, your dad's Edward Woodward. Thank him for not being in my movie?.'

Although they were pleased to be here, the family didn't feel complete.

'It's very sad that mum and dad are not on the trip,' said Michele.

'We're looking for places to rent so we can all come over,' added Karen.

'It's 20 years since Michele's been over and 10 since I've been here. It's still special. All the street names are still in French. I can't wait to buy a Guernsey T-shirt.''Do me a favour,' said her brother-in-law. 'Leave me in the car on the ferry when you do.'

Edward asked about my Yorkshire accent and I explained I'd left Guernsey when I was six but came back at 22.

'They always come back,' he said.

I told him about a friend who had been in the marines for 26 years and wants to return here.

'Our daughter, Emily, is engaged to a Royal Marine,' he said. 'He's just come back from Afghanistan.'

Then Michele's mobile rang.

'That's Emily now,' she said, and went off to talk.

I told Edward that I couldn't look at a lightbulb without thinking of his 60s TV series, Callan.

'It's the greatest joy I've had. I did it for seven years. But you could do a series and drop it and start again in those days. It's not as frenetic as it is now. You can't do it now.'

He recalled that the series in which he played a reluctant professional killer for a shadowy branch of the government's intelligence services was so popular it used to vie with mid-week football.

'It was an amazing time. It went out on a Wednesday night on Thames.

We were told we had to move Callan for the football, but the football had to move for us.

'Can you imagine David Beckham saying, ?Move the football??'

Edward is gaining new fans due to

his appearance in the Simon Pegg comedy film, Hot Fuzz.

'There was a bloke on the ferry coming over to Guernsey with a portable DVD watching Hot Fuzz.

I wanted to go over when I was on, tap him on the shoulder and go, ?Uggghhh, that's me!?.'

What a great family - open to questions, generous with their time and best of all, really funny. Like a family you'd love to bump into on holiday.

I thanked them for letting me talk to them, admitting that I'd had a twinge of nerves.

'We were talking before you came in,' joked Edward. 'We said, ?Let's make him feel really nervous?.'

As for forthcoming projects: 'My husband and I are getting into the production side,' said Karen.

'We've got a few series planned. But what is going to be the focus is Bella. She's being hotly pursued. That's going to be a full-time career for me. There'll be lots of therapy involved.'

'Thank God we're not in America,' said Edward.

So you read it here first. Look out for Bella - a star in the making from a normal family who just happen to be stars.