North West

In May 2008 Jodie, who's from Blackpool, won the role of Nancy as part of the BBC One programme "I'd Do Anything".

Before that in 2006 Jodie was the first ever female winner of the reality TV slimming show "The Biggest Loser".

She lost more than eight stone in six months, starting the show a size 26 weighing 18st 2lbs and slimming down to 9st 9lbs and a size 10.

'I'd Do Anything'

Jodie may have won the hearts of the "I'd Do Anything" audience, but she’s still shocked to have been chosen to play the role of Nancy.

Jodie loves going home to Blackpool and her dogs

"I’ve worked as hard as I can to get here and I think it’s an honour to be where I am and to work with the people I’ve had the opportunity to work with.

"I’m just dead grateful for being here, I really am."

Jodie attended auditions for the show in Manchester in January 2008, and the rest… as they say… is history!

It’s been non-stop for Jodie since winning the show - a roller coaster of acting classes, voice coaching, appearing in Les Miserables, moving house and finally starting rehearsals for Oliver.

Overweight

But her success is all the more remarkable considering that in 2006 Jody was seriously overweight and very unhappy:

"The biggest I ever was, was 22 stone… I wasn't in a healthy nor happy place for me…

"I've tried all the diets… and none of it worked."

Jody saw the US version of a reality TV slimming show ‘The Biggest Loser’ and decided to enter.

"And the winner is..."

She won, after losing eight-and-a-half stone in six months:

"I was just sick to my back teeth of feeling the way I did.

"Weight was the first thing I thought of when I woke up in the morning and the last thing I thought about when I went to bed.

"And it was just making me so unhappy and the weird thing is that when I told people that I was going to go and do the show and they said 'Oh we didn't think you were unhappy with your weight'.

"And that was the thing with me you see, because I used to sing and I used to do comedy with it… I don't like seeing people unhappy and I don't want them to think I'm unhappy.

"So that was my way of masking it, I was literally hiding behind my fat I really was."

Jodie will be appearing in Oliver, with Rowan Atkinson as Fagin, at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane.

"I never thought in a month of Sundays that I could be where I am."