Darlington's Zoe Birkett starring as Tina Turner on West End

The Darlington-raised actor shot to stardom girl on Pop Idol in 2001 when she was the highest-placing girl at just 16 years old.

She took up the role, which she shares with fellow actress Karis Anderson, last month at London's Aldwych Theatre where the show has been running for six years.

The show tells the story of Turner’s life and was produced in association with the woman herself. She died aged 83 in May last year and the musical is now dedicated to her.

Zoe said: “This has been a dream of mine for years since the musical opened, I have just never been available to audition.

“When the musical opened I was a huge fan, I have grown up listening to Tina Turner my whole life and my mam is the biggest Tina fan.

“It’s a huge honour, it would be for anybody to play this role. It’s a lot of pressure of course to make sure that we tell this story correctly.

“I think the audience that come and see the show don’t necessarily know or realise the trauma that Tina had – they may have picked up on her career in her 40s when she was a solo artist, but people don’t realise how abusive of a relationship she had and how much she was rejected from the music industry.

(Image: DAN KENNEDY)

“She was rejected because of her race, because of her age, because she was a woman.”

Zoe has been in the role for the last two weeks, after seven weeks of rehearsing, and says it is one of the hardest gigs she’s had.

“Just the emotional trauma that you can take on as an actress is hard and to shake that off when you go home yourself,” she said.

“Also the physical fighting side of it – it’s not just the singing and dancing which is full out anyway and three hours of putting on a Tina Turner voice which is quite harsh on your vocal chords – but the hour of fighting in the first act is very hard.

“This is by far the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life”

The musical tells of Turner’s abusive relationship with husband Ike. When she spoke out in 1981 she told People magazine she was “insanely afraid” of him, claiming he beat her while pregnant, threw scalding coffee at her, and more. Ike always denied his ex-wife’s claims. He died in 2007.

She describes the musical as being more like a play, telling the life of Tina Turner with some of her biggest hits thrown in.

Zoe added: “The show is actually more of a play – I wouldn’t even call it a musical. It’s the story of Tina’s life from being a very young girl until her big night in Brazil performing to over 180,000 people when she was in her 40s so there’s a lot to cram in with all the Tina Turner hits on top. It’s almost like two shows in one.

“I am looking forward to a couple of months when I can start to really enjoy myself and relax into the role a bit more and I’m not having to think about where on the stage to be next or the next costume change.

She comes to the role fresh from a spell as Rachel Marron in the UK Tour of the Bodyguard and an outing in Roald Dahl’s The Witches at the National Theatre.

The show will be touring the UK next spring, but Zoe will be staying in London as she is signed up for the West End version.

Hailing from Darlington, she has long had a big fan base in the town.

“I am always thankful for the support from the North East,” she said.

“Whenever I put anything up on social media people say ‘Darlo is so proud of you’ and ‘You put Darlo on the map’ and it means the world to me.

“It’s the support that I’ve had for 25 years, it’s really nice, and I just want to say thank you to all of my lovely family and supporters in the North East who’ve been there since day one.”