Marshal Lansbury : ROSE PARADE DUTIES FULFILL A YEARSLONG WISH--SO DOES A SCRIPT ABOUT A COCKNEY MAID

According to Angela Lansbury, people are always asking her to name the one that got away: the role she always wanted to do but never got the opportunity.

Her answer to them is always the same: “There isn’t any,” said Lansbury, her blue eyes twinkling. “With me, it’s always, what’s the next role that is going to come in the mail or that somebody is going to tell me about and I am going to fall in love with. I have always loved to switch and spring a change (on people) and I have constantly done that.”

And as much as Lansbury, 67, is relishing “this lovely success with ‘Murder, She Wrote,’ I felt, ‘Gosh, I must do something that is different and has a new substance that I want to investigate and find out about.’ ”

So before she began her ninth season as mystery writer Jessica Fletcher on the highly rated CBS Sunday series, Lansbury spent her hiatus in Europe filming ‘Mrs. ‘arris Goes to Paris,” airing Sunday on CBS, right after “Murder.”

In the comedy-drama, which also stars Omar Sharif and Diana Rigg, Lansbury plays the title character, a middle-aged Englishwoman who makes her living cleaning homes for several wealthy Londoners. While working for one client, Mrs. Harris becomes enchanted by her employer’s two Dior gowns and decides, by hook or by crook, she must own one of these beautiful and expensive creations. Lansbury’s oldest son, David Shaw, was co-executive producer, and her other son, Anthony, was the director.

During a recent interview at her Brentwood home, Lansbury described “Mrs. ‘arris” as a middle-age fairly tale. “It’s a lovely, holiday picture,” she said, taking a sip of her tea. “I love the story of it.”

Based on a short story by Paul Gallico, which was first published in the New Yorker magazine in the ‘50s, “Mrs. ‘arris” had been “bandied around Broadway for years as a possible musical material, which it could have been but nobody ever developed it,” said Lansbury, a recipient of four Tony Awards for the musicals “Mame,” “Dear World,” “ Gypsy” and “Sweeney Todd.”

‘We could never get a good book and for that reason it was never done,” Lansbury said. The project was revived as a film a few years ago when someone brought the story to CBS. Though the network thought it would be a perfect vehicle for Lansbury, she said the only way she would do it is if there was an “A” script.

“It needed to be written by an English writer,” she said. “So I got in touch with John Hawkesworth (“Upstairs, Downstairs,” “Danger UXB”) because I knew he would understand the mentality of Mrs. Harris than we in America could possibly do.”

Lansbury said there had been a few “dry runs” with American writers but they had misconceived the character of Mrs. Harris.

“They made her funny and comical,” Lansbury said. “I found that rather distracting and it diminished her in my way of thinking. I felt the only way to make the story work as a drama was to make you realize that this woman was totally sincere and she had this absolute dream that she wanted to have this dress and she realized her dream.”

Lansbury feels “Mrs. ‘arris” will inspire people to realize their own dreams, however unattainable. “It is a little parable,” Lansbury said. “I think we need those kind of stories today. People wanted to feel uplifted and want to feel they can go after something, even though it seems like the last thing in the world you could attain. We all tend to think in life, ‘I would love to have that, but of course I don’t have a chance.’ We all do that.

“I have learned to sort of say, ‘Cancel that thought.’ I believe that really there is very little in life we can’t get, or you will get it in some way even if it isn’t exactly the way you thought you should have it.”

Ever since she arrived in Los Angeles in the early 1940s, Lansbury has wanted to see the Tournament of Roses Parade. This year she’ll finally see it--up close. Lansbury serves as grand marshal of the 104th Tournament of Roses Parade on Friday.

“It is wonderful,” Lansbury said of the honor, adding it has taken her several weeks to decide what to wear for the event, “for the simple reason everyone tells me it is terribly cold that early in the morning. You can’t wear fur, you see. I don’t like to wear a parka and overcoats are pretty dreary.”

So what will she be wearing?

“Something which will be interesting,” she said with grin.

And on Jan. 23, Lansbury will host “Company in Concert,” a benefit concert of Stephen Sondheim’s Tony-winning 1970 musical at the Long Beach Civic Light Opera, featuring a reunion of the original cast. (Lansbury has appeared in two Sondheim musicals, “Anyone Can Whistle” and “Sweeney Todd.” Sondheim also wrote the lyrics to “Gypsy”.) Proceeds of the concert will go to two AIDS charities and the Civic Light Opera.

Lansbury, who took on the role of executive producer of “Murder” this year, said she believes the series has been such a success because it is a “comforting show. It simply allows you to sleep well on Sunday night. I think it has a lot of nice, strangely enough, family values. I hope it always will. I want to maintain those aspects and those facets of the show. It is a nice mystery. It’s not a show about issues. I know we have the good old gory corpse occasionally, but it’s not a show about violence.”

“Mrs. ‘arris Goes to Paris” airs Sunday on 9 p.m on CBS.

“Murder, She Wrote” airs Sundays at 8 p.m. on CBS; reruns air weeknights at 8 p.m. on USA.