Pauline Quirke would never take part in a reality TV show.
The ‘Birds of a Feathers’ star has been approached on numerous occasions to spill the beans on her life on screen but she’s turned it down every time thus far because no amount of cash can persuade her to sign up – partly because of her health.
Speaking to the Daily Mirror newspaper, she said: "I’ve been asked to do things. I like watching them but I’d never be on them, no matter what the price.
"I’ve had a hip replacement and a knee replacement, I can’t do ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ and I couldn’t be putting stuff in my mouth. I just couldn’t do it."
The 57-year-old actress underwent an operation on her hip seven years ago after she started experiencing excruciating pain and she was diagnosed with osteoarthritis.
She said at the time: "I was filming BBC TV’s afternoon drama series ‘Missing’ … I play Det. Supt. Mary Jane Croft and was in every scene. But it became increasingly difficult for me to get in and out of my police car, walk up and down the stairs, or rush into one of the various detectives’ offices. The pain was so bad, I was hobbling about. It was ridiculous – and hardly gave off the right impression for a senior detective!"
But the pain in her hip began to spread down to other joints – due to the position she was walking in – and she was told by specialists she’d need surgery on her knee too.
She explained: "He showed me the X-rays and I could see my right knee looked as if it had fragments of cartilage floating around. But I was told one of my hips was far more of a problem. Although the left one was perfectly normal, as good as dancer Darcy Bussell’s any day, the right one had no cartilage between the socket and the cup, and the sockets were grinding on each other."
Pauline Quirke won’t do reality TV show
