IT'S a long way from the Piazza to Paradise Island, or a Pontin's holiday camp to the Bahamas, but that's where Radcliffe actress Jane Danson has recently been soaking up the sun's rays.

Jane (23) and her boyfriend, Brookside and Emmerdale actor Robert Beck, relaxed in the exotic hotspot and allowed the public a glimpse of their enviable lifestyle in the pages of this week's Hello! magazine.

Glamorous Jane is a world away from the suburban Warwick Road home in Radcliffe where she grew up.

Her holiday on Paradise Island is the couple's way of celebrating moving into their first home together in London.

But Jane has no regrets about leaving the three bedroomed home in Bury which she bought for herself.

"I've discovered I love the south," said Jane. "When I'm up in the north now, I'm itching to get back. I do miss my family because they are not just around the corner but they are still on the end of the phone." It was love at first sight when the couple met at the British Soap Awards two years ago, although the young Jane had nursed a crush on Robert ever since he appeared in Brookside in the early 1990s.

At first they kept their relationship a secret, but now they are happy that the secret is out.

Jane has never looked back since winning the role of the notorious Leanne Battersby in Coronation Street at the age of 18.

Gripping storylines such as her elopement, marriage, abortion, divorce, gambling and drug addiction allowed Jane to showcase her talents so it came as no surprise that she was snapped up when she took the brave decision to leave the soap.

After appearing in just one series of Granada's medical drama A&E, Jane has firmly established herself as feisty nurse Samantha Docherty and is looking forward to appearing in the next series.

One thing that is not generally known about Jane is that Danson is not her real surname. She was actually christened "Dawson" but because there is another actress with that name in Equity, Jane had to change.

She moved to Radcliffe at the age of one. Prior to that the family lived in Chestnut Avenue in Bury.

The Bury Times often runs stories about local people who have won holiday camp competitions, and that's how Jane and her family first hit the headlines.

A vacation to the Pontin's holiday centre at Brean Sands, Somerset, in 1987 saw them dazzling other holidaymakers with their performance skills.

Mr Dawson, then a 42-year-old bricklayer, took the title of male disco dancing champion, Mrs Dawson was second in the Silver Lady contest, and Jane herself won the Junior talent competition with the comical song, Hannibal the Cannibal.

Impressed blue-coats spotted her talent and urged Jane's parents to take it seriously. So they got her a place at Oldham's famous Theatre Workshop when she was ten.

At that age Jane's dream was to be a singer, rather than an actress and her heroes were Kylie and Jason. In fact it was her singing voice that first made her stand out at St Andrew's CE Primary School in Radcliffe.

"It was beautiful," says her former headteacher Mrs Alwen Bowes.

After her first holiday camp win Jane entered contests every time the family went on holiday and in 1989 her rendition of The Bangles' hit, Eternal Flame, won her family a week in Scarborough.

Thanks to her involvement with Oldham Theatre Workshop, whose other alumni include Lisa Riley and Anna Friel, Jane quickly came to the attention of casting directors. This led to radio and television appearances in such programmes as Sloggers (with fellow Bury-born Ralf Little from The Royle Family) and Children's Ward.

But it was her role in the controversial Alan Bleasdale drama GBH that brought her most attention.

As the disturbed Eileen Critchley she was a central character in the drama which also starred Robert Lindsay and Michael Palin.

The rest, as they say, is history and the former Radcliffe schoolgirl is looking forward to a rewarding career as one of Britain's top actresses, and life in the London with her sweetheart.