Second Chances

Chapter One

Déjà-vu.

That's the only word I can use to describe what I'm feeling right now.

Déjà-vu.

Or maybe 'nostalgic'. That's another word that's been batted around a lot over the past few weeks. Brad even described the whole thing as a nostalgic orgasm, but I'm not sure that I can share quite so much enthusiasm just yet!

So why am I feeling like this? Well that's simple, but in order for you to fully understand, I need to take you on a whistle-stop tour of my life.

My name is Hannah Spearritt and I'm 34 years old. Ever since I was a child, I've wanted to become an actor and somehow, despite the odds, I've managed it. It took a while though!

I'd always loved acting and was involved in all of my school plays. I love being able to pretend to be someone else for a few hours. One day when I was revising for a maths test, I saw an advert on the TV for auditions for the National Youth Music Theatre. Suddenly my interest in maths had gone! I begged my parents to take me for an audition and somehow I was accepted. Over the next couple of years I played minor roles in a couple of shows. However when I turned 16, I had the opportunity of a lifetime thrown my way... NYMT were going to be performing on the West End stage! I was so excited! I managed to convince my parents to let me move to London, where I lived with 4 other people from NYMT. We were all between 16 and 19 and it was mad! We all wanted to "make it big" and when we weren't performing or studying (groan!), we'd walk around the West End hoping to meet real stars.

Looking back, those days were pretty magical. We had no worries, no fears, and we all believed that we'd get our names in lights one day. Every Saturday we'd scan The Stage in the hope of finding auditions that we were interested in and it was on one of these days that I found something that would go on to change my life.

An audition for a pop band.

Ok, so it wasn't ideal but it was something! I'd always been ok at singing but my real passion had always been acting. The advert said that there was the possibility of TV work too so I thought "why not?" A week later I went to the audition and had a great time. We had to do a mixture of singing, dancing and acting, and although I knew I wasn't the best singer, I knew I could dance and act well so I was hopeful.

I didn't hear anything back for about 2 weeks and I'd forgotten all about it to be honest. Then one day I got a phone call inviting me to a callback. I went along and was one of about 50 people. I was told that there would be two bands: a boy band and a girl band. Looking around I could see that there were about 30 girls altogether. My hope quickly dissipated! We were told more about the 'project' and I got really excited. The bands would have a kids TV show which would be broadcast on BBC. Wow! I had another day of singing, acting and dancing ahead of me though and I had to convince them that I was the right person for the job. I swear that day I sang harder than I ever had and danced with more passion than ever.

Anyway, to cut a really long story short, I did get into the band. In the end, they decided to create a mixed band because they couldn't find the right people to make 2 separate ones. We were to be called (drum roll please...) S Club 7. Ok, so it sounds a bit random, but there were 7 of us so at least that explains the number! Don't ask about the S: I'm not sure we ever actually found out about that!

We had a great run: 4 number one singles, multi-platinum albums, TV shows that were watched by over 90 million people worldwide, and even a movie! It was a great time in my life and looking back, I realise just how lucky I was.

Anyway....that was years ago. 12 to be precise.

We split in 2003 and everyone went off in their separate ways. Some of us kept in contact, but not everyone. That's natural I guess. Straight after the band, I acted in a couple of movies and then I landed the female lead in Primeval. Those days were some of the best days of my life! It lasted for 6 years and during that time I went from being 'Hannah from S Club 7' to being recognised for my acting ability. It was great!