A video of a St Albans woman taking her pet tortoise for a walk during the coronavirus shutdown has gone viral.

Jill Priest of Jennings Road said the filming had started out as a laugh with her friend.

Jill explained: “It came about from a conversation with a friend who said her dog was helping her to get out once a day. I joked that because I don’t have a dog and still want to go out that I would have to walk my tortoise, Petal, as my one daily exercise trip.”

Jill’s friend said she would love to see a video of that so she carefully placed some string in the shot and pretended to be walking the creature.

The mum-of-two said she cannot believe how much interest the footage has had.

Currently it has had 1.86 million views on Facebook and 9.7 thousand on It’s Gone Viral.

Jill added: “A lot of people have tagged their friends who don’t like exercise and some who have tortoises.

“It has mainly had people liking it and sharing it. It was exciting to start with but I have realised that I would not like being a celebrity as I don’t really like all the attention.

“I am glad I have been able to cheer people up with this at such a tricky time.”

Jill is an actor with OVO theatre company in St Albans, and also works as a volunteer with hedgehogs at The London Colney Hedgehog Rescue.