Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
MIDWIFE STAR ON YELLOW BRICK
CALL The Midwife’s glamorous blonde nurse Trixie has plenty of tricks up her sleeve in real life.
Actress Helen George started out as a singer and dancer long before landing the Sunday night BBC drama role that brought her fame.
Her talents even caught the eye of one of the world’s biggest pop stars who signed the wide-eyed 21-year-old up as a backing vocalist.
But today the much-loved Nonnatus House midwife confesses Elton John failed to deliver for her as far as his own talent was concerned.
“I was so arrogant then,” says Helen, now 35. “I knew his music but I didn’t really know it.
“I was singing along to all of the songs. But at the time I was just like, ‘what’s he going to wear tonight?’ because he’s all about the costumes.
“Now I listen to his music and realise he’s a genius. The lyrics are just incredible too.”
Today Birmingham-born Helen tells of her ups and downs and how she nearly said Goodbye to her own Yellow Brick Road to success
LOVELY
As a child she studied ballet – but it was her singing talent and love of musical theatre that landed her a place at the Royal Academy of Music. “When I was there in 2005, Elton was on the board and I once sang for him,” she says.
“He took some of us along on his tour that year, so I was a backing vocalist.
“We went to places like the Royal Albert Hall, Wembley, really amazing places.
“It was a magical time, we’d hang out with him and David Furnish in the bar afterwards. They were lovely, David is so nice. It was incredible.”
But that brush with fame was only fleeting and afterwards Helen’s dreams came down to earth with a bump.
Speaking on Instagram Live, the actress admits she ended up as a shop girl at Harrods, struggling to pay bills and only kept financially afloat by her parents Neil and Margareth.
“I did a few little jobs and then nothing,” she says.
“I was spraying
I sprayed perfume in Harrods and had bunions
ON STRUGGLES BEFORE HER TV FAME
perfume in Harrods in three-inch heels, getting bunions. It’s hard, the life of a performer. Someone said on the radio the other day you’re a superstar if you’re making money out of the
industry. There were a good few years where I thought, ‘Can I survive?’ I was being supported by my parents and auditioning for everything. I remember going for Mamma Mia so many times to be Sophie, but I never got it.”
Her luck changed when she hooked up with a pushy agent.
“She believed in me and became my hero, hounding casting directors saying, ‘You have to see her’.” In 2012 Helen hit the jackpot and landed an
YET another ex-Coronation Street star is getting ready to shimmy from the Cobbles on to Strictly’s dance floor.
Actress Katie McGlynn – who played Sinead Tinker – is in talks with the BBC hit’s bosses.
HIGH HOPES Katie
But the road to success was hard for Helen audition for Trixie. “I thought if I didn’t allowed to swear, what if I say something get that I’d probably give up. So I was wrong? I don’t want to get in really lucky that I got the part.” trouble with the BBC’.
After becoming a TV regular, Helen “I’d get so stifled I couldn’t speak landed a place in Strictly in 2015, partnered and if you pull back and become with show hunk Aljaz Skorjanec, reserved you can come across as 30 – but despite continuous being snobby or even rude. high marks she was eliminated in “I struggled with being able to be week 11. She thinks she came across myself around a huge group of as too snooty. new people I didn’t
She says: “I can be loud, a big know. It was personality, but at base I was a shy kid so scary.” so I always have that to fall back on. Now
“Without a script, I was like, ‘I’m not Helen is
She hopes to follow in the footsteps of former Street stars Catherine Tyldesley and Georgia May Foote - who both waltzed on to the show after leaving Corrie. An insider said: “It’s looking positive.
“She’s cleared her diary for the end of the year as she’d love to do it. She’s shown her talent on the BBC’s Greatest Dancer for Sport Relief and would love to improve her ability even further.”
Earlier this year, Katie, 26, shared her fitness journey with fans, after losing a stone. She said she felt “dowdy and frumpy” during her final weeks on the ITV soap last year.