DINAH Sheridan, star of Genevieve, The Railway Children and mother of Conservative Party chairman Jeremy Hanley, has lunched with Noel Coward, stayed with Sir John Gielgud, once had a stroke and was baptised aged 41. She’s also had both hips replaced, married four times, lost her three day- old child, had a nervous breakdown, addressed the Tory faithful and met nearly all the Royal family.

We’re talking in her Kensington flat, with two glamorous paintings of herself in the drawing room. Aubrey Ison, 78, her husband since 1992, is next door. Dinah, 74, wears a colourful Indian waistcoat, trousers and gold House of Commons pendant. Jeremy gave her a silver portcullis when he became an MP. When she married Aubrey, on her birthday, he gave her the gold one. Dinah declines to be photographed, maintaining graciously that she’s past it. (A month-old decision, this.) She produces a picture of her marriage to Aubrey, with Jeremy towering beside them. ‘We’re the two dwarves,’ says Dinah, with whistlingly perfect upper class enunciation.

Dinah has grey roller wavy hair, neatly plucked eyebrows and discreet makeup on a kindly face. She seems younger than her age, only occasionally forgetful, and is keen still to work. But her fingers are knarled with arthritis. She takes pain killers daily. ‘If I didn’t, I couldn’t get out of bed.’

She tried naturopathy. ‘No meat, fish or fowl. I became a walking soya hotpot.’ Then she had two hip replacements. ‘Surgeons say they’re second only to amputations. They’ve got to get your leg off before they can put anything in.’ Afterwards, she objected to the crutches. ‘I felt like a pissed spider. I kept falling over all my ‘legs’.’

Dinah has always enjoyed a close relationship with her children (her daughter is Jenny Hanley, former Magpie presenter). She and Aubrey returned recently from a holiday in Cyprus with Jeremy and his wife, Verna. ‘Jeremy once did a political speech and someone asked him to enlarge upon the worries of his job,’ says Dinah. ‘‘None,’ Jeremy replied. ‘My only real worry is my mother. She has 15 suitors and only one is unmarried.” Dinah, in turn, backs her son politically. ‘I canvass with him when he asks. I just stand on street corners and get soaking wet while he says, ‘Meet my mother,’ and they all say, ‘I know your face.” She canvassed in Brixton. ‘He walked the soles off his shoe and was sopping wet. I ran behind trying to get him to buy new ones. I was much more worried about my son’s feet than his getting into parliament.’

At Jeremy’s request, she addressed some of the Tory faithful at Brighton the night before the bomb. ‘I’m always terrified standing up and speaking. But I’ll always do it.’ Recently during Question Time, Frank Haynes, labour MP, roared that he’d be far happier to see Jeremy sitting there if he had half the beauty of his beloved mother. Frank then delivered a Dinah eulogy. Later Richard Luce summoned Frank to his office, in which Jeremy had hidden Dinah. ‘Frank went red with delight. No fan has ever been sweeter. He just melted.’

Dinah has just finished her autobiography. (‘I’m a typical Virgo. Highly critical, methodical, dogmatic, tidy, artistic and with a dogged determination to finish things.’) ‘I’m terribly anxious that I shouldn’t hurt or shock anybody,’ she says. ‘I feel frightened by what I’ve written. I know Jeremy is apprehensive.’She’ll let Jeremy alter her book. Dinah has many a tale to tell. In 1990 she was invited to talk at a Savoy ladies’ luncheon. After Dinah accepted, (‘Jeremy said, ‘I’ll help you with your speech”) the organisers informed her she’d be speaking after Willy Whitelaw, for 40 minutes, in front of 600 people with Princess Margaret as the guest of honour. ‘How the hell do I get out of this?’ she wrote back. The day dawned. ‘I bet you’re nervous now,’ said Princess Margaret, addressing Dinah in the receiving line. ‘I’m thinking of ducking out, M’aam,’ replied Dinah.

Once she stayed a week with Sir John Gielgud in Buckinghamshire. ‘Every day he’d appear at breakfast in a different dressing gown, twirl and say, ‘Do you like this one?” says Dinah. ‘One day he said he had a terrible confession. ‘This is the same dressing gown as Monday. I have five gowns not six.”

Above all, she’s also purged herself of husbands past in her book. ‘I’ve had a very strange life. Whenever I’ve married, I’ve married for life. But things have gone desperately wrong.’

Dinah’s first marriage was to actor Jimmy Hanley. ‘I’d adored him since the age of 12. My mother tried to point out his irresponsible ways.’ She smiles wanly.‘I just could’t manage.’ She lost a child before Jeremy was born and when the marriage broke up, Jimmy took the children and she had to work to raise the money to win them back in court.

Her second marriage was to Sir John Davis, chairman of the Rank Organisation. ‘I didn’t know the man I married. He was an incredible double character. Soon after we married, I discovered the existence of two other wives. ‘Wives numbers two and four’, he called them. He’d only told me about one and three.’ She hung on for the sake of her children. But Sir John was a physical and emotional bully who drove her to a breakdown.

During this period she was baptised and confirmed. ‘At the time I felt in need of it.’ And her breakdown? ‘I thought I’d broken my neck, I couldn’t move it. I went to a clinic for six weeks. I told the doctor I wanted to see a psychiatrist. All I wanted was to stay in the clinic.’ The doctor told her she didn’t require psychiatric help.

The true facts of their divorce didn’t emerge until years later – that Sir John was a sadist who liked dressing in women’s clothes and carried a whip. ‘He didn’t dress up,’ she says, sharply. She looks forlorn. Was he a sadist? ‘That’s not completely wrong.’

Next came the late Jack Merivale, actor. ‘Darling, adorable Jack.’ Two years into the relationship, he developed a kidney disease which required dialysis three times a week. She cared for him for 21 years, on a machine in the next room. ‘After 16 years of looking after him, I had what they call ‘good God high’ blood pressure. I’d had a tiny stroke.’

They remained unmarried for 18 years, because the accountant deemed it advantageous tax- wise. ‘One day Jack suddenly said, ‘This is silly, we’re both OAPs. Write and ask your accountant if we can get married.” The accountant replied in the affirmative. ‘Jack called Jeremy and said, ‘Your mother and I are thinking of getting married.’ ‘Oh,’ Jeremy replied, ‘I wouldn’t rush into anything if I were you.”

Now Dinah is married to Aubrey, a retired Californian businessman. ‘I hate the idea of being labelled as someone who’s had four husbands.’ They’d known each other for 21 years. ‘He and his late wife Liz stayed in the house opposite when they were in London.’ This marriage, says Dinah, is marvellous and fun.