SHE'S gone from playing a sexy wife to getting ditched at the altar in a matter of weeks. However, Katharine Monaghan, 24, of Footballers' Wives fame, is determined to steer clear of the pitfalls faced by her characters.

At the moment the Geordie lass is resolutely single and if she ever does get married, she says it won't be to a footballer.

"Those characters were famous without doing anything.

"They were only well-known because of who they were married to," she said, referring to her stint as Donna Walmsley, who was married to fictional football star Ian.

"It would be nice to have all that luxury, but there are more important things in life. It's certainly not a lifestyle I have yet."

Katharine's life may not yet contain all the trappings of fame enjoyed by the Footballers' Wives characters, like expensive clothes, huge houses and a swimming pool with a mosaic of a footballer on the bottom, but such is her ambition you wouldn't rule it out in the future.

Already her aspirations have caused her to quit the high-profile part of Donna she landed straight from drama school to make her stage debut in Lincoln.

The North West will see her take to the stage in just her second play, Sailor Beware, in a rather unlikely pairing with Hi-de-Hi's Ruth Madoc, who will play her overbearing mother.

Katharine said: "It's a 1950s comedy about a girl who's about to get married to a sailor, but her mum doesn't approve and her fiance decides not to turn up at the church.

"It's very different to Footballers' Wives.

"It's a nice seven-week tour and we'll be going to some of the big, summer beaches like Blackpool and Bournemouth.

"I'm really looking forward to it.

"It's good to be doing something for me, away from all the attention you get with Footballers' Wives."

Certainly, the waves of press attention which surrounded the show saw Katharine, together with her co-stars Zoe Lucker and Susie Amy, shoot straight to the top of television's celebrity A-list.

For Katharine, who had just left the Oxford School of Drama, the ferocity of the media glare was a little unnerving.

"I wasn't expecting Footballers' Wives to prove so popular," she said. "I was just starting out. I had no idea whether it would flop or be a success.

"The way it took off was very scary.

"That's why it's nice to take time to do something new, away from all the press. Doing theatre is very different. You have to remind yourself you're playing to lots of people, rather than just a little box."

Katharine's time on Footballers' Wives involved some wildly dramatic scenes, including trying to retrieve her long-lost child from the clutches of blackmailers and a fling with an Italian striker before she left, with husband Ian, for Manchester United at the end of the last series.

She said: "It was nice to have the big, emotional storylines. In terms of acting, there was a lot of good stuff there."

However, she added: "It's good to give people time to forget a big show like that. I don't want to be typecast."

Katharine's ambitions lie back on the small screen and possibly even in film.

She said: "I'd love to go back into telly. In particular, I've always wanted to do a period drama."

For a North East girl, a Catherine Cookson adaptation would have been ideal, but a disappointed Katharine said: "They've stopped doing those now. But I'd like to do something like that. A good classic drama."

From footballer's wife to Bronte heroine? There can't be too many actresses who have done that.

Katharine appears in Sailor Beware at the Grand Theatre, Blackpool, from June 10-14