Janine Duvitski, known for playing Jacqueline in Benidorm, is not the only famous actor in her family. Her daughter, Ruby Bentall, has followed in her footsteps and joked that she got her start in acting “via nepotism”.
Janine joined the ITV comedy in 2007 as Jacqueline Stewart, who along with her on-screen husband Donald, played by Kenny Ireland, became firm favourites with viewers. During her time on the show, she was part of memorable storylines, including Donald faking his death in an insurance fraud scheme.
Kenny died in 2014, but Janine stayed on Benidorm until it ended in 2018. Since then, she has appeared in Still Open All Hours, Midsomer Murders and CBeebies’ Old Jack’s Boat.
Ruby Bentall's acting career
Janine shares daughter Ruby with her actor husband Paul Bentall. Ruby has appeared in several TV shows, including Holby City, BBC’s Doctors and Lost in Austen. She also played Minnie in Lark Rise to Candleford and Angelica in The Serpent Queen.
Ruby is also a theatre performer, with appearances in several productions over the years. Speaking to The Stage in 2024, she credited her parents for inspiring her to act.
She said: “I went to the theatre all the time as a kid. I used to stand in the wings and watch my parents.”
Inspiration and stage mishap
Ruby recalled watching her father in The Taming of the Shrew with the Royal Shakespeare Company when she was about six. She said: “I got quite sick at the time and my mum had to look after three other children, so my dad took me to work. I watched that production again and again. I loved it. I was inspired by it.”
She also described the worst thing that happened to her on stage, during Peter and Alice with Ben Whishaw and Judi Dench in the West End. Ruby said: “At one point, Ben had this very emotional speech that I had to set up with one line.”
She added: “On one performance I totally dried, then just spouted some nonsense sentence. I was looking at him like: ‘I’m so sorry.’ I could see him thinking: ‘Thanks for that.’ I wanted the ground to swallow me up. Ben laughed about it after, though. He is the nicest man ever.”
Benidorm is available to watch on ITVX.
