The Anthony Minghella and Richard Curtis adaptation of Alexander McCall Smith's hugely popular The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency was screened by the BBC over the Easter Bank Holiday weekend. Grammy Award winning singer Jill Scott stars as the much-loved heroine Mma Precious Ramotswe, and she reveals in this interview in the Observer that eating cheese played a major part in her preparation for the role:

'We have this thing in Philadelphia, where I come from, called a cheesesteak,' she says. 'It's steak and melted cheese in a roll. I ate at least two of those a week. I've never been a small woman, but I put on 30lbs. Even then, they added padding to the hips, the heiney [bottom], the arms and the boobs.'

'It was so nice to play such a positive role,' says Scott, who stars alongside Dreamgirls actress Anika Noni Rose (Mma Makutsi) and Lucian Msamati (Mr JLB Matekoni). 'I loved Botswana. I kept seeing myself in other women, bumping into myself and thinking, "Oh wow, there's my nose."'

Mr McCall Smith also remarked on Jill's likeness to Mma Ramotswe. '[He] came on set a couple of times and he just looked at me and said, "Mma Ramotswe, it is so nice to meet you. You are exactly as I imagined you to be."'

Take a look at an on the set report in the Telegraph.