Footballers' Wives star Susie Amy is stepping out of her high heels for her latest role - playing a terrorised blind woman in a play in Worcestershire.

And she is hoping the role in theatrical thriller Wait Until Dark will help save her from a lifetime being known as her larger-than-life television alter-ego, Chardonnay.

Despite becoming a household name in the hit ITV show 24-year-old Amy said landing meaty parts was still a struggle.

"Every part you are seen for there are 1,000 other people applying for it and they agree to see 100," she said. "It's a hugely competitive industry.

"It always makes me laugh when someone quite wellknown has not got a part. That happens all the time. For every 100 parts you go for you get two."

Scoring the role of Chardonnay in Footballers Wives moved Amy into the TV Premiership.

Chardonnay was an unforgettable glamour-model who became mother to a hermaphrodite baby and accidentally killed a footballer with a champagne bottle, before being gripped by anorexia and starving herself to death.

Amy became so identifiable with the character she began to worry about being typecast as a gorgeous but vacuous glamour girl.

"After two years it became such a well-known show it felt like the right time to go," she said. "I had no job to go to, but I don't regret it.

"If you are really sensible the pay is fine, but not if you do it for ten years and then you're unemployed because you're so typecast you can't do anything else. It's not like Friends, then you don't mind."

Many imagine Amy came into the acting business via modelling, but she said: "I've never done it. I'm not tall enough or thin enough. It's always been acting."

She acted and was coached by drama tutors during school holidays and deferred a university place when she earned a place to perform in After Juliet with the National Youth Theatre. She then caught the eye of an agent and decided to take her chances on TV.

As the vulnerable Susy Henderson in Wait Until Dark, Amy plays a blind woman terrorised in her flat by a group of London con artists who are desperate to get their hands on a doll her husband has brought back from Amsterdam.

Her return to theatre means a protracted absence from her actor boyfriend of two years, Max Beesley, but she is finding the role satisfyingly challenging.

"I'm blind and it's an emotional part," she said. "It's tiring but I enjoy it. Max has been to see me in it twice. Even if someone is in a play that you know, there's only so many times you can watch it and enjoy it."

Next she wants another stint on the small screen. One thing not on her current 'to do' list is appearing on a reality TV show such as the recent Celebrity Love Island.

"I worked with Kelly Brook and I watched it for her. But I've got a boyfriend, I don't think he would like me going on it. I thought it was going to be worse than it was actually.

"If I was going to do one, I'd do The Games because it's more about achievement." n Wait Until Dark is at Festival Theatre, Malvern, until Saturday.