Billie Piper smoked cigarettes with the Spice Girls aged 15

The Doctor Who and Secret Diary Of A Call Girl actress was born and grew up in Swindon and rocketed to fame in the late 1990s as a teenage pop star.

Speaking on The Jonathan Ross Show, the Because We Want To singer, now 41, and Spice Girl Melanie Brown reflected on when they had appeared on music chart television programme Top Of The Pops and smoked together.

Piper said: “I was such a huge fan so imagine being 15 in a dressing room with the Spice Girls, I used to smoke cigarettes with you guys in the dressing room, you’d give me fags.”

Brown said: “That would have been me and Emma.”

Piper added: “Yeah, it was you and Emma and we would sit on the floor at Top Of The Pops smoking cigarettes and ashing in a plastic cup, it was heaven.”

Piper, who appears in new Netflix film Scoop about the Newsnight interview where the Duke of York was grilled over his relationship with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, also discussed the items she has taken from television sets.

Billie Piper will appear as Newsnight producer Sam McAlister, in the new Netflix drama Scoop. (Image: PA)

The actress revealed she has the central console from the Tardis, a time-travelling vehicle from the BBC One programme Doctor Who, which she starred in alongside Christopher Eccleston, who was later replaced by David Tennant.

“I take things from set, I see things, I take them,” she said.

Revealing which items she has taken, she said: “Loads of things, rings, costume jewellery, I actually have a whip and some underwear from the Secret Diary Of A Call Girl.”

“I took loads of stuff from the Tardis – the main central console,” she added.

Reflecting on her music career, Piper said: “I was 14 when I signed my record deal, the same age as my eldest son which blows my mind but he isn’t that interested which I think is fine.”

The Jonathan Ross Show airs Saturday at 9.35pm on ITV1 and ITVX.