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Valerie Leon is the only actress to have the distinction of appearing in four of the most popular cult film series ever made, having starred in the Carry On, James Bond, Hammer Horror and Pink Panther franchises.

For millions, she was the Hai Karate girl, the statuesque brunette captivated by the alluring scent of the male aftershave in a series of television advertisements. Watching a procession of men attempting to fend off her advances with some inept martial art moves was accompanied by the product health warning – “Be careful how you use it!”

Now 77, she’s a perennial favourite at film and television conventions, and still as vivacious as ever. She even made depravity acceptable to impressionable audiences when she appeared as the whip wielding, leather clad dominatrix in “Revenge of the Pink Panther.” With Clouseau seemingly dead, his ever entrepreneurial manservant Cato, has turned the French detective’s Parisienne apartment into a Chinese nookie factory. One sight of England’s answer to Racquel Welch thrashing away at every hapless male customer was sufficient to send my popcorn flying everywhere in the dimly lit cinema. I’m sure my heart has been beating out of sync ever since………………………………………….