CHILDREN'S television favourite Danielle Nicholls is to shock her young fans by performing a sexy pole dance routine in a nightclub.

Daring Danielle shed her inhibitions - and her clothes - as a pole dancer for a risque new television show.

Danielle, who was the face of CITV for three years, said she was absolutely terrified by the challenge.

She said: "Millions of screaming kids are nowhere near as scary as getting my kit off in front of a room full of grown men - I was absolutely terrified."

Danielle, 25, made the move for an episode of The Unprofessionals, in which she and co-presenter Giles Vickers-Smith accepted the challenge to take on jobs most people would not dream of.

For Danielle, that included becoming a pole dancer at Sirens lapdancing club, in Sunderland.

She said: "When I auditioned, the producers asked how far I was willing go for the job, and I said I would dare do anything. But when they asked me if I could dance I thought, 'Oh, no'."

Danielle said the rest of the series would be a breeze compared to the ordeal.

"We went through an abbatoir yesterday but that was nothing compared to the dancing."

Published: 11/05/2004