ACTRESS Joanne Pearce is putting her screen and stage career on hold to take on her most testing role yet — studying for a history degree at Oxford University.After two years as a part-time student at the university's Department for Continuing Education, Ms Pearce has qualified to enrol as an undergraduate at St Edmund Hall college.

The actress, who lives near Chinnor, has appeared in TV dramas including Silent Witness and Murphy's Law, and has been busy juggling her course with her acting career and looking after two children aged 14 and 12.

Her husband, theatre director Adrian Noble, has offered to stop directing during her first term and do all the cooking to allow her time to concentrate on her studies.

Ms Pearce, who also played Ophelia opposite Kenneth Branagh in Hamlet, said: "Neither parent went to university and I went straight to drama school without a second thought about university.

"I can't believe I have been given another chance to claw my way back into academia.

"All the way through my course, I was encouraged by my tutors to go for it and you just keep on doing things that you think you can't do.

"I remember that I was allowed to take my exam slightly earlier than the rest of the students at the end of my first year of the foundation course. The reason was that I needed to make it on stage that afternoon for a performance in the West End."

She added: "It's quite extraordinary. I have been sitting in a class of 10 students, all of whom are 18 and they have very sharp brains."

Dr Christine Jackson, Ms Pearce's course tutor, said: "Joanne is an outstanding role model for students.

"She had no previous historical qualification when she joined the course but very quickly impressed us with her flair for history and her ability to combine work and family responsibilities with reading books and writing essays."