Fairy tale film role for Snow Queen Sally

Sally, who appears as the Snow Queen, is set to make her film debut as Madam Pince, the chief librarian, in the second Harry Potter blockbuster.

But filming, which has already started, clashed with her commitment to appear in the Octagon's Christmas show, and she did not find out whether this would cost her the part until only two days before she set off to Bolton.

She said: "They rang me on the Friday before I left for Bolton on the Sunday. In the weeks I was waiting there were days when I thought I had blown it. On that Friday I really did think that was it. I thought: 'I'm off to Bolton and that's it'." But instead, Sally received her telephone call to say the producers would be willing to film around her schedule.

She said: "I have never been up for a feature film before. I am with a co-operative agency -- we are all actors -- and when they said my name was being put forward for the Harry Potter film, I just thought I was the last person the producers would look at.

"Then I got an interview in which I had to improvise in front of a video. I was told I would know if I had been successful within a week. But director Chris Columbus was still putting the special effects on the first film and it took three weeks before I heard anything. I was asked to go back and meet him and the producers."

However, when Sally was finally offered the part, the problem involving her availability arose.

It took about five weeks before she eventually got the go ahead to travel to Bolton in the knowledge that the part was hers.

She said: "I start filming on the Monday after I finish here. I must admit I have never read a Harry Potter book, but I am looking forward to it. I am due to be filming until June. What a picture to be making my feature film debut in."

Snow Queen co-star Adam Sunderland, who plays Jack Frost, added: "We are now trying to persuade Sally to put a good word in for us all."