ONE of Swindon's young panto stars will feature on national television next year when she plays the young Princess Margaret in a film about the Queen Mother.

Nine-year-old Jenna Malloy has done TV work before and performed several times at the Wyvern Theatre. But her role in Carlton TV's Bertie and Elizabeth could catapult her into the big time.

The two-hour costume drama chronicles the life of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother from 1920 until the death of her husband George VI in 1952.

Jenna spent three days filming at stately home Neston Park in Corsham, near Bath, for her role.

Her proud mum Julie said: "This is her biggest role so far she absolutely loved it. She just shines when she is performing.

"She loved playing a princess but some of the costumes were a bit itchy and she had to have six or seven inches cut off her hair. But she didn't mind. It's just one of those things you have to do for the part."

Jenna, who wants to be a pop star when she grows up, has had dancing lessons since she was four and attends the Tanwood Dance School in Old Town. She also sings with the Kentwood Choir.

Last year she sang in the chorus of the musical Joseph at the Wyvern Theatre and also had a role playing one of Charles Darwin's daughters in a film about his life.

Jenna is one of the dancers in this year's Wyvern Theatre pantomime, Cinderella.

Jenna gets most of her work through an agency called the Swindon Young Actors File. Mum Julie said it hasn't made her rich, yet, but it does give her a bit of pocket money.

"We always try to make her save most of it but give her a little because she has earned it. Last time she used her earnings to buy a mobile phone."

Elizabeth and Bertie, which stars James Wilby and Juliet Aubrey, will be broadcast some time next year on ITV.

www.ffolio.com/abarchive/tv/bertie.html