THE transformation from hairdresser by day to wisecracking old lady at night could be about to set one woman on the road to stardom.

To her customers, Jacqui Doherty, 47, is the owner of the Village Salon in Harefield High Street but once on stage she’s old lady Mrs Doherty.

Jacqui wowed the judges at Hillingdon’s Hidden Talent competition on Sunday last week, and won the Best Over 25 category.

She took the audience and the panel by surprise when she got up out of the audience dressed as an OAP, complete with walking frame, before breaking into an energetic dance routine to LMFAO’s Sexy And I Know It.

She said: “I don’t think anyone was expecting that. They all seemed quite stunned when this old woman came shuffling out of the audience.

“I don’t know where the idea for Mrs Doherty, as I call her, came from, I just thought it would be funny to hear and see an old woman on stage being funny.

“It was only my third time on stage at Hidden Talent at the Compass Theatre, so to have won was amazing.”

For Jacqui, being funny runs in the family. Her older brother is comedian and actor Jeff Stevenson, who now performs under the stage name Harvey Oliver.

He appeared in the film version of Bugsy Malone and also played the comedian at Rodney Trotter’s stag party in Only Fools and Horses.

He said: “I think it’s great that Jacqui has decided to introduce Mrs Doherty to the comedy circuit, and I am sure she will give a lot of the young comics a run for their money.”

Jacqui said it was Jeff who inspired her to take the leap on to the stage.

“Jeff has been a comedian all his life so I guess something must run in the family,” she said. “I enjoy making people laugh so I decided to give it a go. The hardest part was finding what we think of as old women’s clothes.

“Charity shops only seem to sell nice clothes now, whereas years ago you could go in and find some good stuff for costumes. I eventually managed to track some down and then at the last moment was able to pick up the Zimmer frame, just to top it all off.

“The hair is all my own. Being a hairdresser came in handy for that part.”

Could she be looking to take to the stage in front of the panel at Britain’s Got Talent in the future? Perhaps.

“At the moment it is a laugh and I am having fun, but Britain’s Got Talent? Maybe, who knows, we’ll see how it goes.”

n Our apologies to Jacqui for calling her Jacqui Dixon last week, which was because of incorrect information supplied to us.