B*Witched star Edele Lynch joins Easter pantomime at the Kings, Southsea

Edele, who started B*Witched with her twin sister in 1997, is looking forward to getting back to some acting. As she says, she hasn’t done any since before B*Witched, and this is certainly her first panto.

“It will be like a proper panto, just without the Christmas elements. Obviously! It’s my acting revival!”

Not that she is lacking things to do. Edele is now mum to a three-year-old, a four-year-old and a seven-year-old. Plus she’s also resuming her B*Witched duties since the band was reunited for the ITV2 reality-documentary series The Big Reunion, along with other pop groups of their time, including Liberty X, Five and Atomic Kitten.

“I had been thinking of doing this for a while, but had been putting it off because of the kids. But actually they are more excited about this than anything else. When I am on TV, they couldn’t care less. They love me singing live, but even then only for a certain amount of time and then they get bored. People keep saying to them ‘Is that your mum this? Is that your mum that?’ and they are like ‘Get a life!’ But with this they are really excited.”

After the panto commitments, it will be back to thinking about the band – though obviously circumstances are all very different now.

“It’s weird. Sinéad and I are mums. Keavy is a counsellor now. She went back to college and studied therapy, so for anything to happen it has all got to be right for all of us.”

But certainly without the TV show, they would never have got together – and they’ve even got an EP out.

“We were all so young first time around. We didn’t know any different back then. We had just come out of school, and we didn’t really know any different to what was happening. We really took it in our stride. Going back to reality afterwards was the hardest part. Everything in our lives was so scheduled. Everything was planned six months in advance. We were working 16-20 hour days. There was no spare time. There was no social time. I used to spend £2,500 a month on my mobile. That was my social life. That was all I had. I wish I had those £2,500s back now!”

It all ended with cruel suddenness. They were in the middle of making their third album, they were waiting for a call for a video shoot in Africa... and then out of the blue they were told they were history.

“We just got a call to say ‘Sorry, it’s all over’. It was completely out of the blue. It was tough really. It was like suddenly a bomb had been dropped. There was no tackling or challenging about it. We could hardly say ‘No, sorry, you can’t let us go!’

“It was the end. It was what it was. It was just something that happened, but everything happens for a reason. After it ended, I went back to Ireland, I met my husband and I had my three children, and I wouldn’t change that for the world. Maybe that wouldn’t have happened if it hadn’t all ended.

“But I loved every minute of it. We were burning the candle at both ends, and but I wouldn’t have changed a minute of it. I am so pleased it all happened. It was just fantastic at the time.”