Elaine in relaxation mode. DA4741P1IF you want someone to organise a riot or a scuffle in a pub, then Elaine Ford is probably your woman.

Not that she's ever in trouble with the police.

Elaine is an experienced stuntwoman and stunt co-ordinator and any outbreak of violence on your television screens is the result of careful planning and precision timing rather than law-breaking.

Remember barmaid Tiffany falling down the stairs before coming a cropper under the wheels of Frank Butcher's car in EastEnders, or police sargeant June Ackland hurling a woman from the path of a speeding train in The Bill?

Or more recently, crazed nanny Brenda threatening to throw herself and young Bethany from the top of the church tower in Coronation Street?

All of them were Elaine, suitably wigged and costumed to make you think you were seeing the actual character.

She's doubled Bond girls climbing up blazing lift shafts and galloping across the desert as explosives detonated around her.

She's worked with Timothy Dalton and Roger Moore and Pierce Brosnan, of whom she says: "You only have to show him a fight sequence once and he knows it."

She knows how to joust, crash a car, drive a heavy goods vehicle, dangle from a helicopter and a whole lot more.

But there are limits.

"There are certain jobs I wouldn't want to do because I'm a single mum with two kids," she says.

"These days I think twice about car knock downs and don't do high falls."

Elaine, who lives in Breamore, has been a stuntwoman for 17 years, although she started her working life as an actress.

"I was working on a BBC production and started chatting to two stuntmen," she says.

"When I found out there were only six stuntwomen registered in this country, it got me interested."

Registering for stunt work is not simply a question of signing up.

You have to meet the rigorous standards of The Joint Industry Stunt Committee, which keeps the register and is part of Equity, often at personal expense, before you can register.

Elaine had to show she was adept in six or more categories including fighting, falling, riding or driving, agility and strength, and water skills such as swimming, diving, sub aqua and canoeing, before she was accepted as a probationary member.

Safety is always paramount but there have been moments when she has wondered whether she made the right career choice.

"There was one time on Death Wish 3 when I thought I should be at home knitting," she recalls.

"I was set on fire and had to run through a doorway, down the stairs, then get shot and fall over.

"You wear a fire coat under your clothes and they set fire to patches of fire gel on your back - you have 18 seconds before you feel the heat.

"If anything goes wrong, you go down on all fours and the firemen put you out, but it's very hairy and there's no going back."

Now, after years spent mastering her craft, she is a qualified stunt co-ordinator, capable of organising the stunt, its staffing and equipment, and even having a say on camera angles.

"There are only two or three female co-ordinators in this country," she says.

"Co-ordinating is quite stressful and intense - you are responsible for the safety of others.

"You have to be artistic, creative, and confident because you are in charge of a lot of people and you have to be able to communicate and explain clearly what's expected of the actors and stuntmen."

She's organised numerous stunts for EastEnders, Coronation Street, The Bill, The Vice, Prime Suspect, Casualty and Holby City, but since moving to south Wiltshire, confines her stunt work to weekends, evenings and leave from her job, working in the operations planning department at Salisbury police station.

"Stunt work is thrilling and exciting," she says, "but it's also a very serious profession.

"There are risks but it's my job to eliminate them because I want to here the next day." - Lesley Bates