IDEAL HOMES

LOCATION: Overlooking the Thames Valley so we would have easy access to our boat and could set sail any time we wished. Our boat is Bates Starcraft - she's 46ft and was built in 1967. My husband, John, restored her and she's beautiful.

LOCAL AMENITIES: Good restaurants, pubs and great overnight moorings.

CHARACTER OF BUILDING: Picture- postcard thatched house with plenty of room. At the moment, I live in a modern house - it's got an acre of grounds and a swimming pool, and I enjoy living in this house, but I don't like it being modern. I lived in a modern house when Billy Fury and I first got engaged and I hated it. I have lived in ancient houses. Kenny Everett and I lived in one in Cowfold that was built in 1320 and it was a really spooky place.

PERIOD AND ANY HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION: I'd prefer it to date back to about 1700. I don't think I've ever lived in that period. Most of my past lives have been out of this country - in America, Peru, France and Spain - I was a nun in the Spanish Inquisition. I suppose that's why I've got palms growing all over the place. People come here and fall about in hysterics. It looks like we're in LA.

CONSTRUCTION: Stone and timber frame with wattle-and-daub inside. White painted exterior.

NUMBER OF BEDROOMS: Four-and-a- half bedrooms. I always work in a small room so I always take the thing that people call a half bedroom. If I am seeing a client, I like to be cosy.

BATHROOMS: Three.

RECEPTION ROOMS: Two, decent-sized.

KITCHEN: The kitchen would feature an Aga cooker, have very good light and be spacious with lovely views, as I spend many hours cooking as a way of relaxing.

DECORATIVE STYLE: I'd want no wallpaper. I would want it exactly as it would have been in 1700 which would be white walls and beams. I'd have every modern thing like electricity, but as far as decor is concerned, it would have to stay as it was. I would try and buy furniture that looked around that era. The house I'm in at the moment is open-plan and I've made it look Mexican - I was in an Inca life, so it's something I'm drawing from memory.

LUXURIES YOU WOULD INSTALL: A heated swimming pool, covered in winter. I would also have all the latest modern gadgets in the kitchen. I've just got the latest novelty in garlic pressers. It takes two garlic bulbs and keeps in the fridge, and you just screw it when you want some. I'm also a bit of a Harrods kitchen-shop maniac - I buy all the latest things.

OBJECT WHICH WOULD SAY MOST ABOUT YOU: My tapestry frame, at which I spend many, many hours.

SPECIAL OUTBUILDINGS: A self-contained two-bedroom guest annexe. A lot of my friends live abroad and when they fly in it would be lovely to give them an annexe. I've got two stepsons who are 25 and 23. They've got girlfriends and it would be nice to shove them in the annexe and let them do what they like.

VIEW FROM WINDOWS: The Thames stretching for miles into the distance.

SIZE OF GARDEN: Four acres with the cottage in the centre.

GARDEN'S BEST FEATURE: A large glasshouse with special facilities to house the banana, yuccas, palms and avocado plants that I have around the pool in summer. Also a good size vegetable plot and the rest laid to beds, tree walks and lawns and an octagonal summer house for meditation purposes. Also a small wood.

NEIGHBOURS: No neighbours at all within earshot.

MOTTO OVER THE DOOR: By appointment only.

WHAT IT WOULD COST: According to Warmington's estate agents in Goring- On-Thames (01491 874144), Lee could expect to pay between pounds 500,000 and a million for her ideal home in the Thames Valley. In places like Henley, Goring, Pangbourne, Maidenhead and Marlow, old properties with character and acreage command high prices, because they are few and far between. For properties by the river you could expect to pay an extra premium of between pounds 50,0000 and pounds 100,000. A mooring alone can sell for pounds 40,000.