Abi Titmuss the tabloid regular, glamour model and good time girl as we once knew her has been replaced by an altogether more serious and focused actress.

Having given up drinking and doing the rounds on the party circuit 15 months ago, Titmuss has appeared in several plays, including Arthur Miller’s Two Way Mirror, for which she won a Fringe Report Award for Best West End Debut.

She now stars alongside Lisa Riley and Julie Buckfield in THE NAKED TRUTH at the Epsom Playhouse later this month, where she plays a pole dancing teacher called Gaby.

We talked to Titmuss during a break in the gruelling dance rehearsals for the play which is now in its fourth tour.

“I am so lucky at the moment to have a part in The Naked Truth. But I spent a year knocking on doors, appearing in fringe plays and British independent films.

“I realise I’ve got to start from the bottom and work my way up, I made some money modelling which I could live on whilst doing free jobs.

“Now I want to earn my stripes as they say in the industry!”

Titmuss worked as a nurse to pay her way through drama school before she shot into the spotlight after becoming embroiled in the John Leslie sex scandal; “I attended the Central School of Speech and Drama for three years and was nursing part-time. I want make sure that training wasn’t wasted.

“I sort of ended up a glamour model. I did one picture for FHM and they said it was such a good shot that they were going to make it from one page into two, then they called and said it was going to go on the cover - the week before me it was Halle Berry!

“It just went nuts during that time and it was fantastic but I knew I had to stop modelling if I wanted to get into acting. I was offered loads of cameo parts which I didn’t want to do, although I was a nun in Hotel Babylon - how ironic!

“But now I’ve done a pilot for a BBC puppet show for adults and shot a film called ‘Do Elephants Play’ which my boyfriend is also in.”

Titmuss, wary of the media and journalists, was coy to talk about her current relationship (with ‘Hustle’ actor Marc Warren) claiming anything we wanted to know we could probably find out online anyway.

She recently hit the headlines after newspaper reports claimed Mickey Rourke had asked her out at the BAFTAs - is there any truth in that?

“No, the press blew it out of all proportion. I have met him a couple of times before, he asked me out two years ago at a music festival but I was with Lee (Sharpe) at the time.

“We simply had a chat about his dog which was alive at the time.”

Still consistently in the papers, Titmuss might just pull of her reinvention, with several more plays and films in the pipeline from 2009.

Although there will be no more books; “It was so stressful doing the books, I wrote 40 000 words myself, but people assume I had a ghost writer but over half of it was me!

“The diaries gave me closure and the publicity tour was a success, despite what the press said.”

“People seem to be fascinated by me,” she admits. “And for that I am very lucky and grateful. I have addressed the bad times and now I just want to work hard.”

“I’m happier than I’ve ever been, even though I’m not earning as much money. Sometimes the less you have, the happier you are.”

What does Titmuss suggest we do to forget our money woes?

“Come and see The Naked Truth of course!”

The Naked Truth, Epsom Playhouse, March 30 and 31, 8pm. £19.50. For tickets call 01372 742555 or visit epsomplayhouse.co.uk.