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The girl who would be Nancy
A MIXTURE of hope and fear fills budding Nancy Jodie Prenger every Sunday night. Not surprisingly it arrives as I'd Do Anything host Graham Norton delivers the nation's verdict on who should stay and who should go in the BBC's search for a new West End star.
Regular viewers will see Jodie, so confident, so cool when she delivers her latest song, reduced to a nervous wreck as the results are read out.
Her relief is clear as Norton announces: "Jodie. . . you could still be Nancy!"
Successfully surviving the live eviction, and taking another step nearer to playing the dream role in Cameron Mackintosh's West End revival of Oliver!, dominates every waking moment for the seven girls left in the competition.
Tonight more than four million viewers will tune in to decide their fate for another week.
Blackpool's Jodie only wishes they could all be Nancy. Living in the same house together has made them a little family, loyal to each other.
"There are seven of us– that's one day a week each!"
"The results show is so traumatic. You hope you have done your best, that the viewers will have liked your performance and they have voted for you to stay in. But your heart is in your mouth.
"You feel dread when Graham calls out your name until he says "You could STILL be Nancy" and then you are elated. But it's sad too, we all get on so well but someone has to go.
"Every week as someone leaves, the Nancy house is getting quieter and quieter. Well, perhaps not so quiet with me around!"
Jodie, 28, of Newton Drive, is putting every ounce of effort and energy into winning her dream role.
"I'm loving every week I'm here. It is just such a privilege to have the fantastic vocal coaches and choreographers we have.
"Everyone is so nice. The crew are a laugh and the panel and Andrew Lloyd Webber and Cameron Mackintosh are lovely."
"Today, we have had our mission and acting tips from Denise van Outen and Barbara Windsor. I am trying to be a sponge, soaking in as much as I can. Opportunities like this are once in a lifetime.
"Thousands of girls auditioned for this and didn't get through, so whatever I'm asked to do I will never moan or gripe. I'm lucky to be here, learning something new every day."
Jodie takes her strength from the Nancy character created by Victorian novelist Charles Dickens.
"Nancy was a grafter and I'm grafting ,as hard as I can, week after week.
"I just want to stay true to my heart and keep my feet planted on the ground.
"I hope I can prove to the public that I have the oom-pah-pah to be Nancy."
Last week Jodie won unanimous praise from the judging panel – John Barrowman, Denise Van Outen and Barry Humphries. Impressario Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber, who is mentoring the show and has the final verdict each week choosing from the two girls who poll the lowest viewer votes, added his praise for our Blackpool lass.
John Barrowman told her "You are destined for the West End", while Denise Van Outen added she was becoming a "brilliant actress".
Jodie's take on Whitney Houston's I Have Nothing succeeded in bowling them over.
"I was so scared, it was such a huge number something I would never normally tackle ... I was singing notes I didn’t know my voice could sing,” said Jodie.
“When I stood in front of the panel and heard what they said, I was overwhelmed, I couldn’t quite take it in.”
Another week brings another song and Jodie has been singing her heart out day and night.
“At the end of the day we’re all tired, but we usually have a natter before we go to bed, then I ring my mum and sing down the phone to her!”
Caught up in the whirlwind of work and excitement, doesn’t mean she’s not missing home.
Living in the Nancy House is the first time she has lived away from the home she shares with mum, Madeleine, dad Marty, younger brother Marko and a menagerie of pets.
“I do miss Blackpool,” Jodie added, “I see my mum and dad every weekend which helps, but I do miss all the our animals, specially my dogs Louie and Gizmo.”
Newly engaged Jodie gets to spend very little time with her fiance, Steve Greengrass, 41, who popped the question three weeks ago.
“We only see each other for a few hours a week when I get a half day off. This week he picked me up punched something into the satnav and told me to drive wherever it led. We pulled up to a fabulous health farm where he’d booked me in for a facial and a massage.
“We’d only been there for about half and hour, I was in my cossie in the jacuzzi, and the fire alarms went off.
“We had to leave the building and were all there standing on the car park wrapped in foil blankets. It was hilarious, just like Fawlty Towers!”
Steve is the number one man in her life, even after a meeting with Hollywood heartthrob George Clooney when the Nancys were whisked to the premiere of his latest movie.
“I did go weak at the knees. He’s very good looking and very suave and was he was so nice, but for me Steve is just the best-looking man in the world.”
Former Elmslie school girl Jodie, who went on to a performing arts course at Blackpool and The Fylde College and is well known on the North West cabaret scene and to a wider audience after shedding eight stone to win Living TV’s Biggest Loser contest, is proud of her Blackpool roots and loyal to her hometown.
“I love Blackpool, I’m a northern lass and there’s nowt wrong with that!
“It’s my dream to be Nancy. It would phenomenal. She is such a lovely warm hearted person – a great character to play.”
And playing Nancy to the youngsters competing for the role of Oliver! would be a ball for our Jodie.“They are such fun and so beautiful,” she said.
Jodie finishes on a big thankyou to her fans on the Fylde coast.
“If I could stretch my arms wide enough, I would give everyone back home who is supporting me, week after week, the hugest hug.”
l I’d Do Anything! is on BBC1 tonight, 7.05pm, with the results show tomorrow, 7.05pm.
elizabeth.gomm@blackpoolgazette.co.uk
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Sunday 27 May 2012
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