Shipwrecked Naomi's dead good role

From the archive, first published Wednesday 11th Apr 2007.

REALITY television star Naomi Millbank-Smith has landed a role in police soap The Bill.

Naomi, 21, of Vardon Drive, Leigh, shot to fame on Channel 4's Shipwrecked, in which a group of young people had to survive in the Cook Islands, in the South Pacific.

However, the sunshine and sandy beaches of the Pacific were a distant memory when she spent three days filming The Bill at television studios in London.

It wasn't too taxing, however. The former King John School pupil admitted the one-off part did not require hours of remembering lines and action sequences.

She said: "I don't speak in it. I actually get killed at the beginning and they have to find out who did it. I was in filming for about three days. I got hit over the head with an ashtray.

"When I was a dead body, I was in make-up for two hours and they had to draw my wound on. It was quite relaxing, really. I just closed my eyes."

Naomi plays a glamorous model working for a photographer, played by the actor and musical star Darren Day.

Her body is discovered by PC Sally Armstrong, played by Bill regular Ali Bastian, who has to piece together the model's life through photographs taken of her in a bid to nail the killer.

Naomi said: "I had to go twice and do two photo shoots. I had to do some nice photographs and then some raunchy pictures, which Darren Day's character is supposed to have taken. I had to pose in leather with a whip."

The show will not air until August, but fans of Naomi can see her on TV presenting live interactive programme Party People on satellite and freeview.