'I like the chat more than anything' - Scot Squad star Julie Wilson Nimmo is back on stage in Glasgow

“I mean, I wanted to be a police officer when I was growing up, so this is the next best thing,” she deadpans. “Honestly, though, could you see me as a cop? Definitely not. But now I get to dress up as one, and spend my days on this hysterical show, and they give me money?”

She sighs: “I could not ask for more.”

It is quite a leap from negotiating the face-achingly funny police interview rooms of the BBC Scotland hit comedy to playing the mother of a woman told she is dying - Julie is appearing in Dani Heron’s play Ten Things To Do Before You Die which is this week’s A Play A Pie and A Pint at Oran Mor.

But huge career leaps are nothing new for Julie, who became every pre-schooler’s favourite nursery teacher in CBeebies show Balamory in the early 2000s.

As Miss Hoolie, she entranced and entertained a generation who are now definitely old enough to watch her in Scot Squad, and throughout her career she has played a string of fascinating, funny and dramatic characters.

The East Kilbride-born actor started out on Pulp Video, the comedy sketch show co-written by her now husband Greg Hemphill. She became a well-kent face on the likes of Chewin’ the Fat and Rab C Nesbit, and more recently starred with John Michie and Lorraine McIntosh in the BBC One Scotland horror comedies West Skerra Light and Long Night at Blackstone.

Julie says she did not have to think twice about doing Dani Heron’s play, which is the actor’s writing debut.

“I’ve seen Dani on stage, and she is fantastic, and when I read the script I could not put it down,” says Julie. “It’s brilliant – I like it when actors write plays and the team at Oran Mor are all so lovely.

“I feel – and this is probably just me getting older – that if I’m going to pour my heart and soul into something, and be away from my boys, and spend two weeks in a room with a group of people, then it has to be a group of people I like.”

She laughs: “I feel like I have paid my dues and can take the jobs I like and really want to spend time doing.”

Julie adds: “Don’t get me wrong, this is a bit scary – normally you get five weeks rehearsal, you can take your time – for PPP it’s two weeks and you’re on. But it’s really great to be at Oran Mor, and to have been in the room with the writer. You always want to pull your socks up for them, to work extra hard.”

She pauses.

“It was quite hard going back in to Oran Mor – I was very close to Dave and to Juliet, of course, from our Balamory days – they have been a major part of my life,” Julie says, referring to PPP co-founder David MacLennan and his wife Juliet Cadzow. “But doing the show, you know - I can hear him laughing. He’s wanting us to just get on and do it.”

Ten Things To Do Before You Die is the story of Claire, an “ordinary woman doing ordinary things” until she is told she is dying and sets about making a bucket list. It is darkly comic, sad but ultimately, hopes Julie, uplifting.

“Dani has written it so well, there is lots of emotion, of course, but there are plenty of lighter moments and I think it’s Claire saying – okay, this is my story, so buckle up and let’s get on with it,” explains Julie, who plays a series of roles in the lunchtime play, including Claire’s mother.

“It really struck a chord with me too because my best friend Tracy, who has been my best friend forever, was diagnosed with a brain tumour a few years ago. She had no idea – she had gone to the doctor with a lump behind her ear and it turned out to be cancer.

“She had a nine hour operation to remove it and she is much better now, thankfully.”

Julie adds: “It does make you understand how what happens to Claire does happen – you never know the minute. It’s as raw as life gets.”

Julie is currently working on a second series of her podcast And She Was, in which she interviews interesting and inspirational Scottish women.

“I had the idea after seeing Reese Witherspoon do a similar thing in LA,” she explains. “There are so many brilliant Scottish women that I thought it would be interesting to chat to them, to tell their stories.

“Daniella Nardini did the first one, and she was fantastic.”

In one episode, Julie talks to midwife Emily Smith, who headed up the west of Scotland’s Early Pregnancy Unit. The actor opened up about her own experience of miscarriage.

“It did surprise me, I think, because that was the first time I had really spoken about it to anyone,” she agrees. “I also didn’t want to take away from Emily’s story - it wasn’t about me. But once we started talking, it just felt like the right thing.

“I always wanted four children because I come from four. About a year after our son Benny was born, I had a miscarriage, and the second happened just after our second son Chevvy was born.”

Julie adds: “Putting it out there…well, I was nervous, but I think it’s important it is talked about. Because it really isn’t, and I do think it would help more women if it was. And it would help their partners too – Greg was devastated by what happened, he really struggled.”

Other interviewees have included Deacon Blue singer Lorraine McIntosh and Julie’s fellow actor Dawn Steele.

“I’m loving doing it – you know me, I like the chat more than anything,” she laughs. “And it is important. Women’s stories – they need to be told.”

Ten Things to Do Before You Die is at Oran Mor until Saturday.