AS if it were unusual, Grace Adams-Short announces she has been partying as much as possible over the past few weeks.

The Big Brother celebrity will be appearing in the Thameside Theatre's Christmas panto and the thought of all that hard work is worrying her.

"I only really knew the Disney version of Aladdin, so I had to swot up on the story," says Grace, 22, who will be playing the Slave of the Ring during December.

"We started rehearsing at the end of November so I've been trying to go out as much as possible before then because I know when we start I'll have no life!"

Grace shot to fame as one of Big Brother's most hated contestants last year. She was watched by millions as she bitched and argued with other housemates - particularly Aisleyne Horgan-Wallace.

She says: "Actually, I bumped into Aisleyne on holiday in Spain recently, which was really funny. We're quite good friends now."

After being booed vehemently on her eviction from the house, you'd have thought she would have kept well away from the media for life.

Not Grace. She trained hard as a dancer and went to performing arts school before she joined TV's most famous house and she wasn't going to let something like the entire nation hating her get in the way of fame and fortune.

"All that hating only lasted about three minutes, because I managed to turn it all around," she says, with a hint of the arrogance that caused her all the trouble in the first place.

"Heat magazine was really good to me and eventually I got the public on my side. Going on Cirque De Celebrite really helped too because everyone got to see the real me."

Her hard work paid off. Grace won the circus skills show, despite breaking her foot and performing with it bandaged.

She also lost her bad image and through numerous magazine interviews, managed to get the public to warm to her.

So would she advise anyone else to enter the Big Brother house?

"It depends," she says.

"You've got to go in with your eyes open. Everyone bitches in there, but you do have a right laugh too. Of course they're going to edit it to make you look a certain way, but you just have to get on with it."

Of course one good thing to come out of her Big Brother experience was her relationship with Liverpudlian Mikey Dalton.

The couple are engaged and due to marry next September.

"We've got the dresses and everything," says Grace.

"It's going to be classy because I'm an old fashioned girl at heart. It's going to be a big do, but I'm not going to be wearing a red mini dress or anything like that!"

Ambitious and determined, you get the impression Grace is going to succeed at whatever she turns her hand to next.

"I've got some presenting jobs coming up next year and there are quite a few things on the table at the moment," she says.

"But I would love to perform on the West End stage. As a performer, you always aspire to work in the West End so getting a job there would be fantastic."

While most 22-year-olds would blow large quantities of money on shopping, Grace has been a little more canny with her fortune.

The money she made from lucrative magazine deals and television work since leaving the Big Brother house has been spent on property investment.

"I've always been really good with money," she says. "I don't just spend it all on shoes and handbags!

"I managed to invest a lot. I suppose it's because I've always had my sights set on where I want to be."