AS A MUM, YOU WANT TO GIVE YOUR CHILD EVERYTHING
In the new Tracy Beaker series, the former tearaway teen is a mum. Dani Harmer tells GEORGIA HUMPHREYS about using her own experiences for the role
FEISTY, funny, and fearless; Tracy Beaker was the ultimate heroine of kids’ TV back in the Noughties.
The Story Of Tracy Beaker, which ran on CBBC from 2002 to 2005, focused on the lives and experiences of young people in care, and is set at a residential care home that Tracy – played by Dani Harmer – nicknames The Dumping Ground when she is placed there aged 10.
Now, 20 years since the character (invented by author, Dame Jacqueline Wilson) was first on our screens, she’s back – and she’s a mum.
Berkshire-born Dani, 31, jumped at the chance to play Tracy once again.
“I was so excited because I’m like everyone else; I just really wanted to know what happened to Tracy. Where did she go?”
Well, now in her 30s, Tracy is doing everything she possibly can to give her 10-year-old daughter Jess (Emma Maggie Davies) the best start in life, working multiple jobs to keep a roof over their heads.
The three-part drama, based on Dame Jacqueline’s 2018 sequel book, is told from Jess’ perspective as their lives are changed drastically by the arrival of Tracy’s rich new boyfriend, Sean Godfrey (Jordan Duvigneau), a recently retired footballer.
Dani, who has a four-yearold daughter Avarie-belle with her partner, Simon Brough, loved the relationship between Jess and Tracy, explaining “they’re not just mother and daughter, they’re friends as well. They tell each other everything, and they have loads of fun”.
Did she find being a mum helped her with the role?
“Definitely, because I know that feeling; you just want to give your child absolutely everything. And your life isn’t your own anymore. You have to completely lose any selfish habits that you did have before.”
Of her character, she adds: “We are completely different. But our parenting styles are pretty similar!
“Everything is for our daughters. I’m fiercely overprotective of my daughter, just as Tracy is.”
Other favourite characters from the original series are returning for the new episodes, including Tracy’s former foster mum Cam (Lisa Coleman), and Justine Littlewood (Montanna Thompson), another resident of The Dumping Ground who has grown up to become a successful businesswoman.
Dani was 12 when she filmed the first series of The Story Of Tracy Beaker, her first big leading role.
“It kind of changed me really and it made me 100% sure that this was what I wanted to do as a job,” she reflects.
“It’s such a great thing for an actor to be able to play a role for this amount of time because you grow up with it and it’s really rare. So, I’m really lucky.”
She went on to film further projects as the character, including Tracy Beaker Returns in 2010, in which we saw Tracy as a care worker offering advice to a new generation of ‘dumped’ kids.
She says Dame Jacqueline has always been complimentary about her portrayal of her much-loved creation.
“Thank goodness – could you imagine if she didn’t like what I was doing with the character?!”
■ My Mum Tracy Beaker airs at 5pm on CBBC over consecutive days from Friday, February 12, with all episodes dropping on BBC iplayer from that date too.