TV uglies go glam

Sunday Mirror, Nov 7, 2004 by Lorraine Thurlow

Gerry Cowper, 46, plays Rosie Miller in EastEnders

'The first time my 20-year-old daughter saw me on TV as Rosie, she said, "Mum! Haven't they padded you out well?" But there's no padding - it's the way I'm dressed that makes me look so much heftier. I bet Trinny and Susannah can't wait to get their hands on Rosie. I wear the wrong size underwear to give me extra weight in the wrong places. We even work out which knickers to wear under tracksuit bottoms so Rosie has VPL, and her bra straps always stick out of her vest top. The top half of her clothes are deliberately too tight, and the bottom half is too big so things sag round her bottom.

The wardrobe department love Rosie because they don't often get the chance to go too far downmarket. We could have done things like put a ring on every finger, but we wanted to get across the fact that whenever she has any money, she spends it on her kids.

Rosie never wears make-up. We all have our own make-up bags on the show and I've got an eyeshadow palette in my bag that's never been used! There were two occasions where Rosie's had a touch of glam. One was Sam's wedding, where she wore a denim skirt, white jacket and a beige hat she's obviously had for 15 years from another wedding. The other time was when her partner Keith took her on a night on the town, but they only got as far as The Vic. Rosie pulled out all the stops - lilac eyeshadow and eyeliner - thinking she'd turn heads, bless her.

Rosie's definitely rough round the edges - I've seen ladies like her around, especially wearing the kinds of colours she puts together. For myself, if I buy something that isn't black or brown, it's a big deal. I wear very classic clothes, usually natural fibres, whereas Rosie is a polyester queen. And I'm very concerned with the cut - it makes a big difference to the way clothes hang. Rosie wouldn't notice things like that. I recently bought a lovely black Max Mara outfit, and a chocolate- brown Diane Von Furstenberg dress.

When people see me in the street, they know the face, but the image is very different. Without the awful fleece jacket and grey tracksuit bottoms, it takes them a while to recognise me. I'm quite well-spoken, compared to Rosie, so when I speak, they say, "Oh, you're not like her, are you?" My six-year-old daughter makes a joke of it and does a cod EastEnder accent, "Shut yer maaff, Rosie Miller!"

The most awkward part of her image is the hair, because I can't change it. I knew this when I took the role, but it's tough. They wanted Rosie to have bleached blonde hair with regrowth, so I can't go and spend pounds 200 on highlights.

In my career, I've played across the board in terms of image. I've played dolly birds - I was Trigger's niece in Only Fools And Horses which was working-class glam - I've done period dramas, and I played a millionaire's wife in a childrens' drama. But I love Rosie because you can play around with so much. Her best clothes are funnier than her everyday clothes.'

Vickie Gates, 29, plays mousy station reception officer Marilyn Chambers in The Bill

'I know some actresses wouldn't like being dressed-down for a part, but I quite like playing a frump - you end up getting loads of compliments in real-life. When I meet my husband Kevin's friends for the first time, they usually expect me to be all dowdy, like Marilyn, and dress like an old grandma. But when they see me all dolled-up, they go, "You're quite a fox!" And what woman doesn't want to hear that? When I first found out my character was called Marilyn Chambers, Kevin told me that was the name of an old porn star - quite how he knows that, I don't know. But I think Marilyn is about as far away from a porn actress as you could possibly get. I know Kevin gets a bit of stick from his mates about my appearance on The Bill - and also about how his wife has copped off with Reg Hollis.

My make-up takes less than half an hour, which is great because when I played Leanne in Brookside, it took ages, because she wore so much slap. The make-up artists put on plain make-up, then my hair's scraped back into a bun and I put on Marilyn's glasses. I don't get recognised much - it's amazing what a pair of granny glasses can do to transform you. The final thing is to put on her work uniform. I laughed when I saw it for the first time - it looks just like my old school uniform. When I first got the part, Kevin would joke, "Bring home the uniform!" But when he saw Marilyn for the first time, that joke soon stopped. It's hardly the sexiest uniform going.

I think Kevin gets a bit freaked out when he sees me dressed as Marilyn - he much prefers me as me. Marilyn dresses old for her age but, as with the make-up, it's nice to have a change from Leanne, who wore some outrageous clothes.

It was funny when I went shopping for Marilyn's clothes with our wardrobe mistress. Usually you go looking for nice, tasteful outfits, but we were picking up the worst clothes you could imagine. God knows what the other people in the dressing room thought when I was trying them on, but I don't think I've ever had so much fun shopping.