At thirty years of age, the winner of the BBCs I’d Do Anything, Jodie Prenger, has written her autobiography, It’s A Fine Life : My Story. And a fine wannabe story it is too.
Her opening paragraph, assisted by Guiltewane, catches the breathy prose style of a girl in a hurry to realise her dreams in showbusiness – It’s here, It’s really here. Tonight’s the chuffin night that I’ve been waiting for the whole of my life. After years of struggling and grafting my arse off, my dreams are finally about to come true.
Born in Blackpool, she went to school with Kate Winslet’s sister and all she wanted to do was to entertain folk. She loved to dress up and put a smile on others faces, growing up in a showbiz mecca of Little And Large, Cannon And Ball, Bernard Manning and Roy Chubby Brown. She got to do local musicals and sing classic hits in working mens clubs but her weight ballooned to eighteen stone.
Like Susan Boyle, she had an early taste of television on a Michael Barrymore talent show and went on to lose eight stone and win Living TVs Britain’s Biggest Loser and £25,000. This led to Disney cruise ship work.
In her overweight phase she managed a run on The X-factor, the year Steve Brookstein won. What shines through is her single-minded determination to get better in a fickle business and it took her from a twenty-two stone tubby to a nine stone West End Star. Such determination is not easy to understand and her almost mawkish revelations about past boyfriends will endear you to her.
To say the story is inspirational, is over the top, but you have to admire that spirit that took her from family applause to Mack And Mabel, to an ice-show Spooktacular at Alton Towers to West End fame.
Her chapter on diets and dieting will win you over, more than her gushy prose style. And the description of backstage nerves before the opening of Oliver!
If you have stars in your dreams and wannabe lights in you smile or your children have, then this is a heartfelt read.
