Jill Halfpenny has barely been off our TV screens over the past three decades, whether it's at Byker Grove's titular youth club, causing drama on the cobbles of Corrie or snogging Phil Mitchell on EastEnders.
And with a Strictly title under her belt in 2004, Jill's followed up early stardom and soap success with roles in Waterloo Road and darker dramas like The Drowing and, Channel 5's new series, The Holiday.
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The 46-year-old from Gateshead first burst onto our screens back in 1989 when she played Nicola Dobson in Byker Grove, a self-confessed children's TV drama fan, she longed to be on Grange Hill as a kid and couldn't believe her luck when she landed at the Grove.
She spoke passionately about her time on CBBC back in the late '80s with The Guardian last year, saying: "I adored having the heavy storylines. I revelled in all the chat and gossip off set. I loved having a job, earning money and, well, just being an actor.
"We tackled storylines that kids’ telly hadn’t touched. We felt like we were part of a show that was pushing the limits."
Pushing the limits is something her TV characters didn't mind doing at all - in Coronation Street, she played Rebecca, the nurse colleague of Martin Platt with whom he had an affair in 1999 leading to his divorce from Gail.
And over on Albert Square between 2002-05, she was undercover police officer, Kate, who was sent to spy on Phil Mitchell. She ended up falling for the scally and jacking in the police work and opening a nail salon.
Major roles in Waterloo Road, Babylon, Liar, In the Club, Three Girls and Humans followed, but real-life heartbreak over losing partner Matt Janes in 2017, after he suffered a fatal heart attack at the gym at the age of just 43, helped channel the emotions of her character, Jodie, in 2021's The Drowning.
Speaking ahead of the series, the actress said: "I haven’t experienced the same loss, but loss is loss and I believe people can grieve just as heavily over the loss of a relationship as of a person," Jill told Love Sunday magazine.
"It seems quite obvious to me that everything is interlinked. So when my partner died, I just made a decision to be with it, to invite it in, to let it crush me.
"Because pain doesn’t kill you. But I think denying pain can possibly lead you to darker places than if you just face the pain."
In her newest drama, The Holiday, Jill's character, Kate discovers her husband and a close friend have been having an affair but as she digs deeper, the stakes get higher.
The Holiday is on Channel 5 on Tuesday, March 1 at 9pm, with a new episode airing each night until the finale on Friday, March 4. It will then be available to watch on My5.
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