When The Story of Tracy Beaker was first broadcast in 2002, there was no YouTube or Netflix streaming service, let alone TikTok. Kids, it is said, do not watch traditional TV anymore, yet millions grew up enraptured by Jacqueline Wilson’s care home rebel on CBBC, and now their own children are doing the same.

Dani Harmer certainly grew up with Tracy, playing her as a child in care in The Story of Tracy Beaker, a care worker in Tracy Beaker Returns and a mum in The Beaker Girls. “We grew up together,” she tells Television, while preparing to play Fairy Bon Bon in Beauty and the Beast, which has just finished a run at the Grand Opera House in York.

Harmer is always happy to play Tracy. In the current 13th series of Beaker spin-off The Dumping Ground – the children’s name for the care home where they’ve been “dumped” – she has a cameo turn. But she also satisfies a long-held ambition by directing an episode. “I’ve been interested in directing since I was teeny-tiny,” says Harmer. “I was that annoying kid who wanted to know everything about everyone’s job [on set]. It was a pinch-me moment to come full circle and direct.”

She shadowed Dumping Ground directors before taking charge herself but admits to first-day anxiety: “I was really nervous, like I had impostor syndrome. But after 10 minutes in command, I was: ‘No, I’ve got this. I’ve done my prep, I know the script inside out and I know what I’m doing.’”

Did anything surprise her? “Other directors told me that you get asked at least 250 questions a day, and I thought: ‘You’re being a bit over-dramatic.’ But, oh my gosh, you really do, even when you’re having your lunch. I don’t say this often, but I was really proud of myself. I loved every second. I can’t wait to do it again.”

Harmer, who turns 36 this month, is incredulous but proud when I point out that almost three decades have passed since her London stage debut in the rock musical of The Who’s Tommy in 1996. “Not many actors stick it out, actually, and I still love it as much now as I did then,” she says.

Small parts in adult dramas followed Tommy before Harmer landed the role that made her name. The Story of Tracy Beaker was an instant hit. “It was so successful because it was about something; it felt different to everything else going on. Without being rude, at that time we had very male-led comedy, slapstick programmes.

“I loved the Chuckle Brothers – don’t get me wrong, they were brilliant, genius almost. That was the stuff I grew up on. But along came Tracy, and she was huge – a larger-than-life strong, fierce female character.

“And it was a programme that dealt with some serious issues. You didn’t need to be care-experienced to relate to her. It was about growing up, but it was also teaching kids about care-experienced problems as well.”

Harmer reserves special praise for the author who created Tracy Beaker, the former Children’s Laureate Jacqueline Wilson: “I worship that woman – she just makes people feel seen. As a kid who had divorced parents, just to be able to pick up a book and [think]: ‘I’m not the only one. I can relate to this book I’m reading. I’m not weird’.”

Like the Tracy Beaker series, The Dumping Ground has become a TV institution, with series 14 due to shoot this summer. “It’s not afraid to tackle serious issues in a way that’s not patronising for kids. But at the same time, it’s still a kids’ programme and we balance [the serious] with the light and fun,” says Harmer of the BBC Studios Kids & Family show.

“The BBC does kids programmes better than anyone else. It’s what I let my kids watch [rather than] those shiny American programmes. We all love a bit of singing and dancing, but you just can’t beat what the BBC does.”

Tracy Beaker made Harmer as an actor, easing the tricky transition from child to adult performer, but is it also a curse? “I’m very much seen as Tracy Beaker, which is great – I’ve been playing her for 20-plus years now. I don’t feel old enough to say that but there we go!

“I love the part. I would play Tracy at the drop of a hat, but I also feel typecast. At the moment, my passion is very much directing, so fingers crossed that I get to do more of it. I had an absolute ball on The Dumping Ground.”

She adds, laughing: “Who knows where this path may take me? I hope it will continue in directing but you never know – I may end up producing ... or running BBC Kids & Family.”

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The perfect place to be ‘dumped’

Since its inception in 2013, The Dumping Ground has been shot in the North East – first at Jesmond, then Gateshead, Morpeth and now Hexham.

‘We know our target audiences enjoy watching things from around the world, but it’s important that some of what is available to them is made in the UK and they can see themselves represented,’ says Tali Walters, BBC Studios Kids & Family Creative Director. ‘Shows like The Dumping Ground do an important public service job [reflecting] issues that are particularly relevant to UK kids.’

For the past three years, a North East Screen/BBC training scheme has given local entrants to the industry paid, hands-on experience on the show’s set. Walters says: ‘When you’re not from an area that has lots of TV, it seems impossible to get into [the industry]. Our message is: there might be a role for you – so come and see us.’

We've got amazing local talent in the North East

The scheme starts with an open day, which Walters says ‘excites and inspires people’. Next, attendees apply to shadow heads of department before trainees are selected for a paid five-day placement. Some have then won full-time roles on The Dumping Ground and other current North East productions: Hartlepool-set ITV comedy Transaction and an adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s Night and Day, shooting in Newcastle.

‘We’ve got amazing local talent that needs to be nurtured and given the opportunity to shine,’ says North East Screen Skills Manager Lisa Davidson, a former production designer on The Dumping Ground.

Davidson says the region is ‘seeing a real boost in production. The North East has got all the locations you need – you can get from a rural castle to a city in half an hour.’

Shows like Transaction and BBC Three comedy Smoggie Queens, written and starring Middlesbrough native Phil Dunning, have benefited from North East Screen funding. The region is also set to gain from the planned £450m Crown Works Studios on the River Wear, a joint-venture by Fulwell 73 (the makers of Netflix doc Sunderland ‘Til I Die) and investment firm Cain International.

Davidson concludes: ‘Production companies around the UK are more aware of what we have to offer. We’re improving the skills of our crews. and I’m encouraging talent that has moved away from the North East to come home – the productions are starting to come in.’