She was foul-mouthed scary lady Mimi Maguire in Shameless now Tina Malone is facing a challenge big enough to leave even Mimi silent.
The actress will appear in a fascinating TV show about her real-life pregnancy at the age of 50, alongside husband Paul Chase.
Tina has also starred as Mo McGhee in Brookside and Nurse Bobbi in dinnerladies, along with a brilliant appearance in Celebrity Big Brother.
But, as Pregnant At 50 reveals, this was definitely one of her tougher roles!
The one-hour documentary follows Tina right through pregnancy to childbirth, exploring the challenges of “mature motherhood”.
She gave birth to a beautiful baby girl in December, and was keen to let the producers see how a lady of her age deals with all the physical and emotional battles of the IVF process later in life.
For a mixture of reasons, more British women are choosing to have their children when they’re that bit older than used to be the norm.
Perhaps they were busy getting their career to a higher level, or simply hadn’t found the right partner until later on, but it’s more and more common now for women to hold off on having a family until other boxes in their lives are ticked.
Last time Tina was expecting, she was just 17 years old! So to go through it all 33 years later, with her 31-year-old hubby, former soldier Paul, was interesting, to say the least.
Part of the challenge facing middle-aged mums-to-be is the stigma attached to it. Some people reckon that women of that age are simply too old, while others wrongly assume they’re the gran, not the mum.
“Losing 11 stone and going from a size 28 to an eight was incredible,” Tina admits.
“In the same way, it was amazing being a, successful, award-nominated actress in the theatre and in television. But even these don’t come close to having a child, and seeing that baby for the first time. Nothing can beat this feeling.”
Along the way, Tina gets to meet other women who have done the same thing at this kind of age, including a lady who gave birth to twins at the age of 54.
She even confronts an MP and you know how scary Tina is in confrontational mood when she goes head-to-head with MP Nadine Dorries.
She, of course, is the Conservative MP who infamously went on I’m A Celebrity . . . when the folk who voted for her thought she might do more good in the House of Commons than in the Australian jungle!
Sarah Thornton, of TV channel TLC, says: “Tina Malone: Pregnant At 50 is a frank, honest and deeply personal account that reveals the hopes and fears that come with having a child later in life.
“This heartfelt programme is a genuine and insightful account of mature motherhood, told in Tina’s own typical warts-and-all style!”
As Sarah knows, Tina is not one to call a spade anything but a spade, and to see her deal with stigma, politicians, the cramps and cravings is nothing if not eye-opening.
The unmissable Tina Malone: Pregnant At 50 will be on Tuesday, February 11, at 10pm.
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