Dame Eileen Atkins takes us back to 1920s France and a fantastic world of foul play, chateaus, dungeons and fast cars in Tom Sharpe’s 1978 adaptation of Dornford Yates's She Fell Among Thieves. Atkins’s performance as the villainous Vanity Fair, where she starred alongside Malcolm McDowell, was among the most sinister and scene-chewing of her career. Here, she recalls how this tale of mystery and murder was brought to life by the deadly femme fatale who always had her claws out and her tongue wedged firmly in her cheek.