JOANNE Clifton is best known for her appearances on Strictly Come Dancing and for winning the famous glitterball with her dance partner Ore Oduba in 2016.

Since then she has made a career move into musical theatre and is currently starring as Janet in the flamboyant Rocky Horror Show which is playing at Bournemouth Pavilion until Saturday.

When I call to have a quick chat with Joanne ahead of the opening night, she tells me she had just been tucking into ham, egg and chips.

“I need to keep my energy levels up,” she laughs.

“We also had a big night out on the town last night.”

Apart from learning The Time Warp as a four-year-old at dance class though, 35-year-old Joanne admits she knew virtually nothing about Richard O’Brien’s iconic musical prior to taking on the role of Janet.

“I hadn’t actually seen it – the film or the show. When I got the audition, I watched YouTube videos and the film. In the audition, I had to do the bedroom scene [when Janet is seduced by pan-sexual cross-dressing scientist Frank ‘n’ Furter] on my own on a chair in front of four or five people. It was the most fun thing I’ve ever done!”

Joanne is clearly relishing her role now. “At first it was a little bit daunting, because the audience know the story better than us and they’ll shout out if we get something wrong.

“But it’s such good fun because you never know what they are going to shout out. It can be anything that they want, though apparently there is a script on the internet, but it’s always very funny.”

Although she says she feels pressure to do justice to the role of Janet, she is pleased it’s not as physically demanding as working on Strictly.

“Janet’s character doesn’t really dance much which is good, and we have an amazing choreographer, Nathan Wright. I quite like being told what to dance and what to do rather than doing it myself.”

* The Rocky Horror Shows runs at the Bournemouth Pavilion until October 26. For tickets see https://tinyurl.com/y6zzbpta

* Joanne will be heading back to Dorset next year when she stars alongside her brother Kevin Clifton in Burn The Floor – Anything You Can Do at Lighthouse Poole on Friday, April 3.