The actor Cheryl Hall certainly made an impression as a Kent county councillor when I served with her as a Labour member. After her first win for the party in Ramsgate South in 1993, she held the seat in 1997, while on the same day standing unsuccessfully as the Labour parliamentary candidate for Canterbury.

She deployed her acting skills to make her points forcibly on a NOC (no overall control) council run by Labour and the Liberal Democrats, specialising in the arts and culture. Indeed, her approach to debate was no holds barred for an old-fashioned council that had probably long needed a shake-up.

The 1980s had been pretty barren for Labour in Kent, I recall as a parliamentary candidate myself, but Cheryl’s fearlessness and infectious enthusiasm made her a force of nature.