Former reality TV contestant Michelle Heaton is taking pole position for a return to acting, she tells Viv Hardwick.

A LOT has happened in Gateshead-born performer Michelle Heaton’s life in the past three years, since she made her panto debut at Sunderland Empire.

“I’ve got divorced, remarried… and gone back to acting,” she says.

The acting bit is easy to discuss.

Her comedy-drama stage curtainraiser in The Naked Truth, with the tricky storyline of a pole dancing class, arrives at Darlington Civic Theatre soon for a three-day run. Her adventurous involvement in reality TV shows is harder to explain.

The former singer in Liberty X – which famously eclipsed TV’s first choice of singers chosen for Hear’Say – featured in the MTV series Totally Scott-Lee alongside first husband Andy Scott-Lee and his sister, Lisa.

Their marriage was the subject of a three-part documentary for ITV2 in 2006. In less than two years she was divorced and, in July, she married businessman Hugh Hanley after dating since 2008.

“Luckily, I don’t think I’ve done anything seriously wrong on reality TV. I particularly enjoyed doing Celebrity Big Brother because I’d always wanted to do it and they’d been asking me for a number of years. To be honest, they pay great money and at that time (last year) I hadn’t been working for a year and I think most people in that situation would have done it,” she says.

“I did some acting before I joined Liberty X (she appeared in TV’s Heartbeat after attending Newcastle Performing Arts College), so I’m going back to what I used to do. I got myself an agent and for the past 18 months I kind of laid low and went back to acting lessons and then did my first audition and I got it. I can’t complain and although the play is about uniting women I think it appeals to men as well. I know my husband has seen it a few times with friends and they absolutely adore it.

“I would describe it personally as The Full Monty with women. I think both sexes enjoyed The Full Monty and this play can be quite crude at times, but in a funny tongue-incheek way,” explains 31-year-old Heaton, who takes the role of pole dancing class teacher Gabby.

“I’d never done pole dancing before – well not sober – and I didn’t think it was going to be that hard.

But it’s very, very difficult. It doesn’t matter how fit you are, it’s completely different muscles you’re using. Some of the girls have done the play for two years, so I’m trying to look better than them as the teacher,” she laughs.

Heaton had originally hoped that she’d be cast as one of the other characters, particularly as she is quite similar to Gabby. “I wanted to be someone completely different to what the audience would see me as, but when I went along they said they could only see me as Gabby.

“I’m playing a role that’s not too far away from my own personality, someone who is strong but vulnerable, but I didn’t want people to walk away saying ‘I’ve just seen Michelle Heaton’. I want them walking away and thinking about Gabby,” she says.

There’s also a breast cancer storyline featuring Maureen Nolan’s character and Heaton says: “Her family has suffered quite devastatingly with cancer. So you can see it in her eyes every night when she’s telling everybody that her breast cancer has come back.”

With singing and acting on her CV, Heaton says: “I’d absolutely kill for a role in Chicago. My ideal opportunity would be Roxie Hart.” Her next role is actually panto’s Princess Jasmine in Aladdin, in Southport.

“And I would love to do Dancing On Ice. I got asked to do it about two years ago and had to decline because I was working in Ireland. I’m absolutely gutted because I fear they’ll never ask me again,” says Heaton, who is looking forward to her family and friends travelling to see her on stage in Darlington.

■ The Naked Truth, Darlington Civic Theatre, September 27 to 29.

Tickets: £16.50 to £21. Box office: 01325-486555 darlingtonarts.co.uk