Billie Piper

Profession: Actress
Place/Date of Birth: Swindon, England, 22 September 1982
Associated with: Chris Evans

The Secret Diary Of A Call Girl is based on the online diary, written under the pseudonym Belle de Jour, and is ITV2’s first original commission.

Piper plays Hannah, who has a secret double life as a high-class prostitute.

The drama peaked at 2.1 million viewers and a 12.7% share at 10.05pm.

To date, the highest-rated show on a digital channel was a live Premiership football match between Manchester United and Arsenal on Sky Sports 1 in 2004, with an audience of 2.77 million.

Footballers’ Wives Extra Time holds the record for the most viewers on ITV2, attracting 1.9 million in May 2005.

Belle is cool, says Billie - Sept 19 2007
Billie Piper is one of the few people who has learnt the secret of who the real Belle Du Jour is - and she insists "she’s cool".

The actress is set to bring the author’s tales of being a high-class hooker to life in new ITV2 drama Secret Diary Of A Call Girl - which is adapted from Belle’s real life blog and two popular books.

"I definitely did meet Belle, and she’s sweet and she’s interesting. She’s very clever as well," Billie says.

"She’s cool, incredibly well read, witty and her writing style is not out of character. When you meet her, it’s definitely her voice. It all feels very real to me.

"I don’t know what it’s like to be a hooker. It’s such a taboo subject, you just hear all these horror stories, so it’s quite hard to get your head around the fact someone has done it out of choice and they actually enjoy it, love sex and love getting paid loads of cash for it."

"That’s quite a hard concept to get your head around initially," she continues, "because you think, ’Well, obviously there must be something quite tragic in your life’, you know? So it was really helpful, meeting her, seeing her. She’s so well turned out, graceful, elegant."

Secret Diary Of A Call Girl starts on September 27 on ITV2.

Billie: I Was Endlessly shocked - Sept 7 2007
Billie Piper thinks viewers will be shocked by her new ITV drama Secret Diary Of A Call Girl.

The star plays a high class prostitute in the eight-part ITV2 drama, taken from the real life diaries Belle De Jour: The Intimate Adventures Of A London Call Girl.

She said: "There are many scenes that I think will shock viewers. I read the script and I was endlessly shocked.

"But this is going on and just because it’s not right for us we get on the moral high ground. People are different. People deal with things in many different ways and I’m sure this show will really divide people."

Billie, who’s dating actor Laurence Fox, admitted she took a few secrets learned from her role home.

The actress, wearing what appeared to be a diamond ring on her engagement finger, admitted at an ITV2 programme launch: "I did take one or two things home."

She said of the research process: "It’s funny because we sat down with quite a few girls and you have to be very open.

"You get into it and then you go crazy and say ’Tell me this, tell me that’."

But Billie said she felt no sexier as a result of the drama: "I still feel like a boy. I’m convinced I’m a man," she joked.

But she added: "I know how to walk in nice underwear now.

"The whole time people are saying ’You’ve got to push your tits out, stand straight’, things like this."

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Biography

Billie Piper was born September 22 1982 and propelled into stardom at the young age of 15.

Her fame began when she became the youngest female solo artist ever to debut at number one in the UK charts, with the feisty ’Because We Want To’ in the summer of 1998. Three months later she repeated the feat with the follow-up ’Girlfriend’, a slower R&B-tingle tune, which proved that this was one pop baby who could sing. In October 1998, the platinum-selling album ’Honey To The B’ took Billie’s career a step on and silenced the cynics who had said her success was sure to be short lived.

Throughout 1999 she took a step out of the limelight to work on her second album, whilst playing house with Five singer Ritchie Neville. Then in early 2000 Billie made her comeback with the single ’Day & Night’, an up-tempo song that hit the top of the charts.

Accompanying this comeback was a total image overhaul that offered up a far raunchy and overtly sexy individual. However, still in her late teens, the new image created quite a lot of press, and not all of it good, launching the debate as to whether it was suitable for young girls to copy her style.

Billie’s rock’n’roll lifestyle continued at great apace with a stalker, suspected drugs issues and her eventual marriage to, 16 years her senior, Chris Evans. The relationship that followed saw Billie’s demise from the public eye and the couple became more famous for their extreme partying, which as well as costing Chris his job at Virgin, also saw Billie flounder about with seemingly not much to do other than get drunk.

In 2003 she returned to her roots and polished her acting skills in the sunny climes of Los Angeles. On her return to the UK she quickly earned roles in television and film productions, her first being The Canterbury Tales that stunned viewers and changed their perception of her from a young pop princess to that of professional actress.

She later appeared in The Calcium Kid, Spirit Trap, Much Ado About Nothing, The Ruby in the Smoke and Mansfield Park, however it was her character Rose Tyler that awarded her the most acclaim.

In 2004 Billie signed to work on the new series of Doctor Who, as sidekick and companion of the good Doctor. She won Most Popular Actress category 2005 and 2006 for her work on the series, alongside Best Actress at the TV Quick and TV Choice Awards 2006 and Breakthrough Award at the Southbank Show Awards 2006, however on June 15, 2006, it was announced by the BBC that she was to depart in the final episode of the second series.

In October 2004 Billie and Chris began a trial separation that was to end in divorce, however the couple remain close friends, living just two houses away in the desirable Belsize Park area on London.

read more on Chris Evans

March 2008