High Church

10:44am Saturday 5th July 2008

BEING the mother of a nine-month-old baby and now with another on the way isn't stopping Charlotte Church returning to C4 with her chat show. She loves being a mum and having "a ridiculously well-behaved baby" really helps.

Little Ruby has always slept through the night, from eight weeks. "She's made it an absolute doddle," says Church.

"It all came completely naturally to me.

It's been really great. In terms of work, I left it until I felt comfortable. I feel comfortable now. I feel ready.

"Ruby still comes everywhere with me.

We've got a brilliant family support network that makes it really easy for me."

Despite announcing that she's pregnant again, with the baby due in November, she says the TV show will go on. This is the third series which features chat, sketches and hidden camera stunts.

She feels it's grown series by series.

"When I first started, I wasn't really sure about the whole comedy thing, or anything to do with the writing and planning of the set-ups and stunts," she explains.

"I didn't really know about any of that stuff, I was pretty green. I had a few ideas, but nothing substantial or reasonable.

But by the second series I had a little bit more knowledge about what would work and what we could pull off.

AND this series, even more so. A good few months ago we had a couple of production meetings where everyone came up with a massive load of ideas, and we talked through each idea and I chose the ones I liked and could see myself doing."

The monologue at the start and straight joke-telling is more nerve-racking for her than acting in the sketches.

"They're not live TV, so you can do it again if you mess it up," says Church.

"I love doing the stuff where I'm dropped into films, so it looks like I'm playing opposite a Hollywood star. Some of the script-writing for that is just amazing.

There's one for this series where I'm dropped into a Jude Law film which is absolutely genius. I'm an Essex housewife and he's supposed to be my friend on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire.

"I love doing that, although I don't consider myself an actress. We've got Catherine Tate coming on the show and she's amazing at characters and sketches.

When I watch her, I realise I need to start working on getting some new accents."

For the new series, she had to infiltrate one of the Welsh Guards' final rehearsals for this year's Trooping The Colour. It was the scariest thing she's done in her life, she says.

"These boys have a few months training so their marching and movements are pretty much spot on and, to be fair, they're slick, they move as one. And then there was me.

"I had about two hours to try and learn the basic moves, of which there are a lot - shoulder arms and slope arms and quick march and loads of others.

"I had a big bearskin on and the full army gear and massive boots that weigh half a tonne each. I was knackered by the end. I was a move behind every time.

There were 540 guys on parade, but only one or two people knew I was there. We were fooling a lot of people."

She's also done a hidden camera stunt where she provides the voice in a lift.

That was really good fun, says Church.

"There's so much you can do. Some of the older people in it are really cute.

"It's really funny as well because there was a mirror in there. It's amazing how many people check themselves out, or squeeze a spot, or examine their moustaches, or look at their arse. So it was funny before I'd even said anything, just what people do when they're on their own in a lift."

Another part of the show, Lady to Ladette, "trains" a group of posh girls to go out on the town in Cardiff. That involves a lot of dressing up, drinking and dancing.

Church herself is known to like a drink or two (although presumably she's off the booze now she's pregnant again) but maintains her past reputation as a bit of a ladette is overstated.

"I don't think I was ever that bad," she says. "I used to go out once a week, as most people do. But the Press kept reissuing old photos and stuff so it looked like I was always going out, going nuts, and I wasn't.

"Don't get me wrong, when I went out, I would get absolutely steaming. But when you grow up, you tend to get a bit better control of yourself. I was working loads, I didn't have the time. And I'm dreadful on a hangover, I can't do anything at all."

* The Charlotte Church Show: Thursday, C4, 10pm.

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