Cinderella, Grand Opera House, York, until January 2 2011

The York-born children’s television presenter is playing a “quite posh, but not too posh, ditzy and magical” Fairy Godmother as her own wish to perform in her home city comes true.

“I haven’t worked for New Pantomime Productions before but because Lizzie [the theatre’s general manager, Lizzie Richards] has a child and saw me there in Milkskake! Live: My First Concert last year, she recommended me to Simon Barry, the panto producer,” says Jen.

“Andrew Ankers worked backstage on that show too and he recommended me to do it as well, so the company wanted me, and it’s obviously my pleasure to be doing it.”

As she spoke, Jen was still wearing the glitter, gold eye shadow and gold-tinted eyelashes from that afternoon’s matinee, and the adrenaline was rushing. The company had had only five minutes to deal with the interval blow of losing Stuart Wade to a back injury that has subsequently necessitated Andrew Fitch’s switch from Dandini to Buttons and Samuel Cook stepping into Dandini’s shoes.

“The show must go on,” said Jen, ahead of that day’s all-important press night. “You just have to bounce back and that’s what we’ll do. We’ll get through it! At the matinee interval, the physiotherapist said Stuart couldn’t go back on, so we had to delegate his lines for others to do, and now Andrew will take over while Stuart recuperates.”

The cast coped manfully with the setback, and indeed the team spirit is evident in a cast directed by Wade with panto regulars such as Syd Little and Lisa Riley to the fore.

“It’s going really well and we’re really enjoying it. Everyone is lovely to work with, and the chemistry is very strong, so that’s nice,” says Jen.

Now 26, she lived in York until the age of three, first moving to Barlby and then Scunthorpe. “I try to go back to Yorkshire quite regularly because my dad lives there, at Holme on Spalding Moor. Most of my family are there too; some of them live in Barlby and some in Cawood,” she says.

They turned out to see Jen return to her home city in August last year for the three-day run of Milkshake Live! and no doubt they will be out in force again for only her second panto.

“I played Wendy the year before last in Peter Pan at the Manchester Opera House. Gemma Atkinson was in the show, John Thomson was Captain Hook and Gary Wilmot was Smee,” she recalls.

“I got to fly in a big harness; we had to go to London for training for a day, learning how to take off and land safely and how to compose yourself in the air as a harness is really not that comfortable!”

Her commitments with Five’s early-morning show, Milkshake!, and its new spin-off for older children, Shake!, prevented her from performing in pantomime last Christmas.

“Shake! was only launched in October 2009 with me as the sole presenter, so that’s why I couldn’t do panto,” says Jen, who presents the hour-long show for eight to 14-year-olds each Sunday morning at 10am, filming each episode at studios in Tottenham Court Road, London.

“I’m also one of the three main presenters on Milkshake now after two took voluntary redundancy when Richard Desmond bought Five and wanted to make £5 million worth of cuts, which left me, Derek Moran and Kemi Majeks.”

The show goes on air at 6am daily, and early-bird Jen is enjoying it as much as ever. “I’ve been with Milkshake for four years now and I’ll stay with it as long as they’ll have me, or until I get bored or feel I’m not fulfilling what I should be doing,” she says.

That day is not imminent, judging by her enthusiasm. “I love the people, I love the job, and it’s great to be doing what I always wanted to do,” says Jen, who graduated from Salford University with first-class honours in media and performance in 2005.

She is savouring her return to York. “My mum is in Scunthorpe, my dad is in Holme on Spalding Moor, so I’m flitting between the two and seeing them the most I have since college days as I haven’t lived at home since I went to university and started working in London,” says Jen.

“It’s an honour to be performing in my home city. It’s such a beautiful city and I don’t think there’s anywhere like it in Britain.”

Just as there is never any rest for the wicked, so there will be none for the good fairy either. “I finish on January 2, have the next day off to travel to London and then I’ll be up at 4.30 the next morning to be on screen at six in the morning,” says Jen.

“Luckily I’m a morning person and I love it! If I didn’t love it, I wouldn’t get up with a smile on my face, but I do it, and that’s why I love doing the TV show.” • Cinderella runs at Grand Opera House, York, until January 2 2011. Box office: 0844 847 2322 or grandoperahouseyork.org.uk