a guest appearance in an episode of The Catherine Tate Show. From spring 2006, Halfpenny appeared in the BBC One school-based drama series Waterloo Road as drama teacher Izzie Redpath, a role for which she won the TV Quick Award for "Best Actress". Her character was killed-off at the end of the second series. In 2007 Halfpenny appeared as the narrator of Freaky Eaters for BBC Three and Fat Man's Warning for Channel 4. She narrated a short film advertising how the National Lottery helps the North East, created by students at the Lord Lawson of Beamish School as part of a competition. The film they created won the competition. From the beginning of February 2008, a pregnant Halfpenny played Spike Milligan's long-suffering manager, Norma Farnes, alongside Michael Barrymore in Surviving Spike at the Theatre Royal, Windsor. Halfpenny starred in the West End production of Calendar Girls from 28 July to 31 October 2009, and then played the part of Paulette Bonafonté in the West End company of Legally Blonde, which opened in January 2010 with previews beginning in December 2009. She played the part until late October 2010 and she was succeeded by Denise van Outen. For this role Halfpenny won the whatsonstage.com Theatregoers' Choice Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Musical and won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Performance in a Supporting Role in a Musical. Halfpenny made a guest appearance in the Canadian series Murdoch Mysteries, in episode one of the fifth series, first broadcast in 2012. In March 2012 she starred in a revival of Mike Leigh's 1977 play Abigail's Party at the Menier Chocolate Factory in London. In April the show played at the Theatre Royal, Bath, before transferring to the West End at Wyndham's Theatre, where it ran from May to September. In 2014 she starred in BBC drama In the Club, which returned for a second series in 2016, and Channel 4's Babylon. In September 2014, along with Tim Healy, Halfpenny narrated the history of the north-east of England as part of the ceremony for the Great North Run. In 2015 she starred in Way Upstream by Alan Ayckbourn at Chichester Festival Theatre, and in the same year starred in the first series of Humans. Since 2017 she has been a radio broadcaster for BBC Radio 2, working alongside Sara Cox. In 2018, she covered the Good Morning Sunday show for