Elaine Glover has a role to remember in the new series of ITV1's Footballers Wives... playing a rape victim in episode one who returns to seek revenge as a nanny called Katie Jones. Steve Pratt talks to the actress about starring in a drama which concentrates more on eye candy and incredible nails than plausible plots.

NO ONE is more surprised than Elaine Glover at how her acting career has taken off. "It's not supposed to happen like that," she says. Since completing her studies last summer, she's landed a role in top ITV series Footballers' Wives and starred in a controversial new play at West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds.

The Harrogate-born, Skipton-raised actress won the role of Katie Jones, good-time girl turned psycho nanny in the outrageous Footballers' Wives, while she was still training at Rose Bruford School in London.

"I got the job before I left last summer. I couldn't believe it," says the 22-year-old. "The casting director came to see my showcase performance and I got an audition for the series. I had four auditions in all before they offered me the part.

"I was familiar with Footballers' Wives as I'd watched the previous series. I loved what I saw of it. It's very surreal and exciting to think that I'm going to be on that programme."

The role is certainly one that will get her noticed - and not just for the revealing pink PVS top and skirt in which she makes her first appearance, as a tequila girl dispensing drinks on a golf course in Spain, where the Earls Park footballers are enjoying a pre-season break.

Katie is raped when a party gets out of hand.. she spends the rest of the series trying to identify and take revenge on the player responsible. This involves, for reasons best not elaborated upon here, inspecting their bare bums.

She ditches the scanty PVC outfit for pleated floral numbers and a dark wig in order to get a job as a nanny to one of the players as her quest for revenge gets under way. "It's almost like two roles. The Katie you see in Spain and the Katie you see in England, you won't think is the same girl," she says. The series was a real case of being thrown in at the deep end because not only was it Glover's first professional job but also the first time she'd been in front of a TV camera. She'd only done stage work at drama school.

She admits it was a bit overwhelming and was starstruck by Footballers' Wives glamorous star Zoe Lucker (who played scheming Tanya Turner) on the first day, but adds that "everyone was so welcoming".

The actress sees Katie as a good-time girl, up for a laugh and out to make a few quid while she's young. She goes from being feisty, fun and flirty to courageous, determined and broken after the horrific incident.

"The rape scene was actually one of the last scenes I shot, as we didn't have enough time to film it in Spain," she says. "We picked up the scene about a month later, so by that point I'd got to know the actors well. The scene was traumatic to film but when it was over we both had a hug and checked we were both okay. It was not a nice experience.

"I did lots of research to get into the mind of someone who has been raped. I read lots of articles and a book which is an account of a college rape. I also found watching films surrounding the issue of rape, such as The Accused with Jodie Foster, really helpful."

The week's filming in Spain, on the other hand, was brilliant. "It was crazy out there, we had such a laugh and the locations were out of this world. The only bad thing about filming in Spain was working with a hangover," she says. "We filmed in this beautiful villa on the last night. It was just gorgeous. It had a cinema. It was so good to have a nosy around and see how the other half live." Back in this country, she had to transform herself into Katie the nanny. Her blonde hair is hidden under a short black wig, one worn by Suzy (Chardonnay) Amy in a previous series. "I had to go to the wigmaker to have it reshaped and styled," she explains.

"When I first came out of make-up wearing it, nobody recognised me. I will never forget co-star Sarah Barrand's face, I could tell she didn't have a clue who I was. She just looked at me like a weirdo, then all of a sudden it dawned on her that it was me and she was like, 'oh my God'."

Although Footballers' Wives is known for its fabulous frocks and glamorous outfits, Glover didn't get to wear them. Nanny Katie dresses down and doesn't wear make-up. She felt a bit of a frump beside the other actresses. "I'll be in the car on the way to set, sitting next to the girls who are all looking stunning and there is me, looking like I'm off to bingo," she says.

"Having to wear no make-up was a bit daunting at first, especially when I'm surrounded by gorgeous people. But vanity aside, getting dressed down is brilliant for Katie's character. It really helps me and once I get down to set, I don't care what I look like - the rougher the better".

There were compensations, like the memorable scene in which she had to run in on all the footballers showering in the Earls Park changing rooms. "I basically have to stand there and stare at all the blokes' bottoms. I was thinking, 'do I really get paid for this?'," she says.

Glover's first professional theatre job - in The Lemon Princess at West Yorkshire Playhouse - also resulted from the director seeing her perform at drama school. She played the victim of NvCJD - so-called mad cow disease - in a play inspired by the story of campaigner Stephen Forber, whose daughter Rachel died of the disease in 2001 at the age of 21.

Glover played her in the well-received stage production. "It was my dream theatre in which to perform," she says. "I mean, I'd love to be at the National and that, but I've seen so many shows at the Playhouse while I was at college. It was not a very nice research process for the play but you felt you were doing something important. I met Stephen Forber and his family. It was just letting people know what the disease is about. It meant a lot to me doing the play."

* Footballers' Wives returns to ITV1 tonight at 9pm.

Published: 31/03/2005