Top British actress Jill Halfpenny is equally known for her small screen appearances and stage work. She has appeared in both Coronation Street (1999-2000) and its rival Eastenders (2002-2005) and was the winner of Strictly Come Dancing‘s second season in 2004.

Her successful theatre career includes West End productions such as Chicago, Abigail’s Party and Legally Blonde, for which she won both the Theatre Goers Choice and Olivier Awards for Best Performance in a Supporting Role in a musical (2011).

She also starred in the West End transfer of Tim Firth’s Calendar Girls at the Noël Coward Theatre in the summer of 2009. It’s the theatre version of the film and, based on the real life tale of the Women’s Institute members from North Yorkshire who stripped off for a charity calendar in memory of member Angela Baker’s husband John who died of non-Hodgkins lymphoma in 1998. It raised more than £1million for Leukaemia Research.

Jill dressed down for the role and as one newspaper put it, “to get her thruppeny bits out”. Like the film, modesty is protected on stage by a series of well positioned props.

I drew this quick black biro sketch which she signed at the stage door during her three month stint.