Jill Halfpenny is returning to TV screens tonight (March 1) on Channel 5, leading a brand new thriller, The Holiday.
Adapted from the best-selling novel, the former Strictly Come Dancing winner plays Kate, who, with her family, joins some friends on holiday in the Mediterranean.
While there, she finds out her husband and close friend have been having an affair and decides to get to the bottom of it.
But it's not long before she realises just how high the stakes are.
Speaking to Digital Spy, Jill explained how her time on EastEnders, where she played Kate Mitchell, helped her prepare for such dramatic roles.
"I think that soaps work so quickly, that the way they can help you is that when you're on set and you're particularly under pressure, or you have an hour to do the last scene of the day, because soaps work so quickly all the time, it's not so much of a shift in gears for me to go 'Okay, we're going to do this, we're going to probably going to take the first or the second take, I've got to be right on it'.
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"So it doesn't throw me maybe as much as it throws people who haven't worked at that speed," she said.
"I think people just don't appreciate the speed that soaps have to work out to get the content out.
"Of course, everybody would love to have way more hours than they do on soaps, and to be able to light it in a in a way that is different for each person.
"But sometimes it's just like, 'the scene is linked, it's multicam, this is what we're doing'.
"So once you sort of experienced that, I think it does stand you in good stead to go 'this is this is all right, I don't have to work on the pressure labels'."
Jill also spoke about what drew her to the role, saying: "It was another thriller.
"I really enjoyed doing The Drowning with Channel 5, and I knew [it] would be a great team of people.
"It's slightly heightened reality and it can be quite fun to play with that.
"And I saw the cast as well, and knew it would be great."
The Holiday is on Channel 5 tonight (March 1) at 9pm, with a new episode airing each night until the finale on March 4. It will then be available to watch on My5.
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Catherine is an Evening News Editor at Digital Spy, and was the site's News Editor between 2018 and 2024. Prior to that, she worked at OK! Online, and has interviewed a slew of celebrities across her career in entertainment news, including Tom Hanks, Cheryl and Noel Fielding. Catherine also has specialist knowledge in all things drag, interviewing a huge portion of RuPaul’s Drag Race stars, and getting her own drag makeover for Channel 4's show Drag SOS. LinkedIn
