Turner caused a sensation as the icy seductress

Hall - the 43-year-old former partner of Rolling Stone Mick Jagger - will take over Turner's saucy part for six months from August. And she too is ready - and eager - to bare all for her art.

"I'm over the moon and cannot wait,'' Hall told the Daily Mail newspaper.

Matthew Rhys, 26, will continue in the part of Benjamin Braddock - Mrs Robinson's naive young prey.

Experience

Hall, who has been one of the world's most sought after models since she was 14, has also acted in several TV film roles - but only once on the stage in a production of Bus Stop.

Her lack of acting experience is however unlikely to deter the public from trying to snatch up tickets to see her in the role Turner has made so famous.

Turner's performance has divided critics

Turner's performance as Mrs Robinson has brought audiences to their feet. Critics however have been divided by her interpretation of the part originally played by Anne Bancroft on screen in 1967.

In the play's highlight, Turner drops her towel to bare all for a few seconds in the famous seduction scene that saw Bancroft tantalise Dustin Hoffman with just a flash of stocking-clad leg in the movie.

Hall is, it seems, just as unabashed about showing her body. In 1996, she stripped from the waist to pose for pictures by photographer David Bailey.

The almost nude photo was the first in her 25-year modelling career.

She told reporters then: "The strange thing is that when I was younger I was more insecure about my body than I am now."