I started work on Dynasty again towards the end of September, 1988. And I remember vividly how unreal it all felt. I felt as if I'd fallen asleep on the sofa watching it and dreamed that I was working on it. Nothing seemed real. It was as if time had suddenly stopped.

I had done so many different things during the intervening two years between the series that I needed a week or so to wriggle back into Sable's skin.

I shot my first scene on Dynasty with Joan Collins. I remember thinking, 'Oh Joan and Stephanie are going to have a great time with Alexis and Sable hating each other like they do.' And we certainly did!

We messed up the takes, one after the other, because we would both start laughing, because both of them are so ridiculous... they both think they are the centre of the universe, which is just not possible.

At the end of that first scene, Alexis said something horrible to me. And I - I mean Sable - no matter how hard she tried, couldn't think of anything scathing enough to answer her with. So, Alexis triumphantly makes her exit, slamming the door behind her. The expression on Sable's face was so incredible, that the whole crew burst out laughing.

That's the general atmosphere whenever Alexis and Sable get together. That is, when Joan and Stephanie are working on the set. But all those stories they tell about us are absolute rubbish.

Joan is very funny. She likes to have a good time, and she's intelligent. She realises that her character needs someone like Sable to balance things out. Besides which, she is always very professional, and I respect her greatly. Frankly, I think Dynasty is much more entertaining with these two bitches hating each other...

When I was twenty years old I felt completely happy surrounded by artists: writers, creators, those kind of people. But I was never comfortable with promoters or producers. They didn't seem like interesting people to me. Now that I know the profession better, I realise how important producers are, and I say, God bless them because they are the ones who give us work.

What's more, I now see that they are very creative people. It's just that they have a different way of expressing their creativity.

Richard and Esther Shapiro are the creators of Dynasty. I call Esther my fairy godmother because, when she wants to, she can make things happen simply by pressing a few buttons. She's a woman I really admire and respect. She is a brave woman as well; she adores the independence of being a woman, and is supportive from a distance.

Dynasty was first aired on ABC on January 21, 1981. But, before that, it took Esther - and her team, of course - sixteen months of hard work to put together that splendid casting for the series. Then, later, they did the same thing with The Colbys. She didn't become disheartened for a minute, in spite of the many difficulties with which she was confronted.

The thing is, she had a very clear idea. She wanted to bring back the look of the films from the Forties, when there were strong women and a certain life style. Aaron Spelling shares her love of that period, and Douglas S. Cramer co-executive producer for the series, actually lives that life style. She couldn't have asked for better partners...

There are so many people to thank for the fact that Dynasty and The Colbys have existed, that the list is endless, but the man at the top of the pyramid is Aaron Spelling.

Aaron needs no introduction. Everyone knows all the incredibly successful TV shows he has produced, like Fantasy Island, Love Boat, Charlie's Angels, and so on...

I think working with Aaron Spelling is probably the nearest thing there is today to working under the old studio system. You know there are certain things you can do and certain you cannot.

For example, he would not enjoy it if I appeared on a chat show in blue jeans. No. When you work on a series like this, the public expects a glamorous profile. Thanks to the eternal wing of Aaron Spelling, the glamour is provided... for I can go to all these social functions dressed in the marvellous clothes designed by Nolan Miller... all provided by Spelling's organisation. And it's simply wonderful, like the old Hollywood, the nearest thing to those years of splendour and glory. And people love it.

Aaron is a splendid person, and so is his wife Candy. They both adore their children. When they tell all those stories about him, like transporting snow from the mountains so that his children could have a white Christmas... it's all true. They can do it. They idolise their children. And why not?...

Linda Evans was the first person I met in 1985, when I started on Dynasty. When we did a scene together, she asked me something I couldn't hear. I told her, "I'm deaf in this ear. Would you mind standing on the other side so I can hear you?" She immediately answered, "Oh, of course!"

She is a very flexible and understanding person. I have enjoyed all my work with Linda, a lovely woman, and a very fine actress. I had the feeling before I worked with her that she would be nice, but I didn't imagine that she was such a fine actress. I hadn't realised that she had been acting since she was a child.

She has such a natural way of working that she makes it look easy. But it isn't. The subtlety of "natural" acting, without it becoming strident, is very, very difficult to achieve. I would love to work with Linda some day in something other than Dynasty. I hope we can...

John Forsythe is a most charming man. He is a very simple man who never tries to make life difficult for others. If he doesn't like something he says so in a polite way, and everyone accepts it.

I only have one big problem with him... he always makes me laugh when we're working together. So I have to be careful with him!

Joan Collins is like the old children's nursery rhyme: "When she is good, she is very, very good. And when she is bad, she is horrid." I can't remember how the whole of it goes, but it defines her perfectly.

Joan is a phenomenon. She is a whirlwind that can come in and delight everybody, or she can come in and ruin everybody's day. She can choose. Someone at the studio once said to me: "The essential difference between you and Joan Collins is that you go home and cry, whereas Joan makes other people go home crying."

She can be so enchanting, funny, sweet and lovely... or she can be just plain frightful. You feel like throwing her over your knee, slapping her bum and saying: "Joan you have no right to make everybody's life so horrid." But in a way I think I understand her perfectly. After nine years on Dynasty, at times you have to really fight for what you want.

In this work, and in soap operas in general, unless you demand things, you don't get them. And she has learned what she has to do to get them. Which shows she has a very strong personality. It's absolutely fantastic what has happened to her life. All of a sudden, at forty-two, or however old she was when she began Dynasty, a whole new world of possibilities suddenly opened up to her. And she said: "This is mine, and it's not going to get away." And it didn't!

She is in the Hollywood environment and - God bless her - she is Hollywood. I think Joan wanted to be rich and famous. And I think she has made it. It wasn't instinctive, she went about it consciously, and she has been brilliant.

What do people think when they come to Hollywood? Stars. Glamour. Rich and Famous. That's what people want to see. And Joan is all that. It's a lot more fun to run into Joan than someone who lives out on the beach and spends her time walking the dog.

You mustn't take what I'm saying negatively. These are character-revealing facts. We quite like each other. We have a mutual respect for each other as actresses. And I actually prefer someone who gets angry now and then but has an interesting personality to someone who is easy-going but completely uninteresting. But, as I said previously, Joan Collins is a a phenomenon, incredible. And the way she manages her career is brilliant...