Angela Clerkin on life as an actor and a solicitors clerk:

Copyright: Rae Smith 2012

"I became a solicitor’s clerk after replying to an advert on a notice board in my local library "Crime Does Pay". It fitted in well with being an actor because it was freelance and you could pick it up and put it down as you were paid by the day. Obviously if you were on a 6 week trial the solicitors didn't like you to bail out to do an acting job but they also accepted it was possible. Because on my part I could plan to have work for 6 weeks and on day 2 the defendant could change their plea, the trial is over and you'd only get 2 days pay."

"I was at the Royal Courts Of Justice on a grim family case involving child custody when I had a call from my agent. As soon as I had a break I rang her back and she told me I'd been offered a role in a new comedy series for the BBC, something clawed The Office. I said yes it's worth a punt and then I went back to take notes on the parents drug history."

"It was my birthday; I was at Gatwick Airport on a deportation case when I was offered the part of Slyv in East at Leicester Haymarket. The woman was put back on the plane, immediate deportation."

"Over 12 years on and off I worked on cases involving people charged with murder, GBH, drug trafficking, voting fraud, terrorism, credit card fraud, child abuse, rape. I also worked on family cases and attended deportation and immigration hearings."