ABI Titmuss may be famous for getting her kit off, but the onetime tabloid naughty nurse, lads’ mag favourite and reality TV star is putting the kit on in Hull. Rugby League kit, to be precise.

At the invitation of Hull Truck artistic director John Godber, the 33-year-old glamour girl is playing fitness-centre trainer Hazel in Up’n’Under.

“Yes, he did head-hunt me, which was a big honour,” says Abi. “John first got in touch with me at the point when I was already committed to doing my first stage role in Arthur Miller’s two-hander, Two Way Mirror. That was in 2006, and John came down to London and we met and he discussed the idea of doing Up’n’Under with me.

“I told him I was doing the Miller play, and he said ‘Are you mad?!’. I said ‘yes’, but it went well – I won the award for best West End debut from The Fringe Report.”

That debut was inevitably a nervous experience. “Knowing they were waiting for me to fail… I felt absolutely terrified, but I couldn’t say no. All the critics came on the first preview night; they were all there with their notebooks. The director had said, ‘Don’t worry, they won’t come to the first show’, but they did and I remember there were letters in The Stage saying why was I in it and an article saying how outrageous that I was doing it.

“But I have kept an article that’s been blown up for me that says, ‘Abi Titmuss is not just a cover girl but an actress of genuine promise’.”

Despite winning the award, Abi did not think her debut had been a total success. “At the time all I saw were the reviews that didn’t like me, not the ones that did,” she says. “For a long time afterwards, I felt I wasn’t good enough and could have done better and didn’t really have the experience to tackle it in the way that someone with 20 years’ experience would do it.

“But there was something that was raw and natural about it, and I do remember American theatregoers, who didn’t know anything about me, coming to my dressing room and saying how much they enjoyed it.”

Abi went on to appear on stage in Fat Christ, The Spare Room Project and the national tour of the pole-dancing comedy The Naked Truth. Now she is stretching her limbs once more in the 25th anniversary production of Up’n’Under after Godber not only renewed his interest in casting her but also extended the role of Hazel for her.

“John is a legend. It’s a joy to come to work; he’s brilliant to work with. He’s a wonderful writer and to have him re-write it for us, I have to pinch myself. I can’t quite believe it’s happening.”

Oh, it’s happening, all right, and what’s more, Abi will be appearing next as, wait for it, Lady Macbeth in Shakespeare’s Scottish play in Lowestoft.

Up’n’Under runs at Hull Truck Theatre, Hull, until October 31. Box office: 01482 323638.