Lucy Speed loves being one of the girls for a musical, even if it means turning herself into a character who died at 17 and spends her time talking to the audience. Viv Hardwick chats to her about Girls Night and her years of soap fame.

WHILE some will regard the show Girls Night as an excuse for all things handbags and gladrags, actress Lucy Speed doesn't see it that way. This clever musical, which tours to Darlington's Civic Theatre next week, appealed to the former Natalie-playing TV EastEnder for its wide-ranging appeal to both sexes.

She says of the decision to sign up alongside Only Fools And Horses star Gwyneth Strong: "I took the role mainly because it isn't mainly girls' subjects, it's about people who have grown older and these women are in their 40s and on a karaoke night. But it has flashbacks to their youth and they talk about marriage and about growing up but you never feel any different. You're 40 but you feel 17. It was also written so beautifully and so poignantly and the jokes can be recognised by the whole audience which makes the comedy easy to perform.

"Songs come into it for the karaoke night and this is a way of putting the songs into the show. They're all the anthems (Dancing Queen and It's Raining Men) that you'd expect and in between the songs, they are talking about life and the way they're behaving is a direct result of what's happening in their lives at the time."

Writer Louise Roche comes from Milton Keynes and Speed recalls 1,500 a night came to see the show in the city's theatre because the new town has taken the play to its heart.

"This was great for us because even in the afternoons the attendance was amazing," she says.

Dressed in white, Speed plays Sharon, who was killed in a moped crash when her gang of friends first started going to discos.

She explains: "I'm dead basically, I'm an angel who died aged 17 when these friends were young. I'm kind of still with them even though the others don't know it. I'm the narrator, who knows everything about the others lives, and I talk to the audience in character but the cast can't hear me talking to them. There's also a bit of a twist at the end which Sharon is involved in, so it's a great part and has a bit of everything. I'm kind of getting the story across while behaving like a stroppy teenager.

"She's an angel, so she's got that quality of hindsight which makes her more mature but there are points where she's quite acerbic and a witty angel, but not an airy-fairy caring kind of angel.

"I've played plenty of parts in the 20 years I've been working professionally so there have been many roles that were far removed from Natalie in EastEnders. But this is the most different since I was in EastEnders because there's song and dance and I also break the fourth wall by talking to the audience. It's quite a challenge to the reality world we were trying to portray on TV."

SHE laughs about audience reaction to Girls Night and says: "They're so up for this, they talk back when they're allowed and are up on their feet and dancing and I get down and dance with them. I think we take them on a journey and when we finish every single audience has shouted for more... but I think people are ready then for their own night out."

Despite having trained for the stage since she was a child, Speed admits that she's 'not a karaoke person' when it comes to her own life.

"I'm not one to get up there and sing, but I do enjoy watching everybody else do it. But, in this case, karaoke is a bit different when there's performers like Donna Hazelton and Laura Sheppard who have these great voices. What is funny is that we do all look like normal women aged 40 who go out dancing in a club.

"Although I trained as a dancer and singer, I've regarded myself as an actress from appearing at the National Theatre when I was eight. So I've never seen myself as auditioning for Les Miserables. But this musical incorporates song and dance with a good acting role and that doesn't come up very often."

Speed feels that the 'ex-EastEnder' tag is something the press has put on her because TV viewers have seen her appear in other programmes.

"People who have grown up with me on screen remember me rolling naked into stinging nettles in the children's show Dodgems. Others recall me in Rumpole Of The Bailey playing Patricia Hodges's daughter. I don't feel ashamed of being in EastEnders because it was a huge part of my life and it was a difficult job to film 28 scenes a day. Filming and photography have moved on a lot but to retain a high level of emotion over so many scenes in front of an audience of millions is not something that any actress should be ashamed of."

Ironically she and former screen husband Shaun Williamson, who played fat and unfortunate Barry Evans, have both moved into musicals. He was recently touring the North-East in Saturday Night Fever.

"I talk to his wife regularly but not often to Shaun because he's always so busy," she explains.

And does she find any time to watch BBC1's popular soap?

"Yes, when I find the time the TV does go on. I can view it totally removed without thinking about how the programme has been made, I just treat EastEnders as a viewer... I think that's good," she adds.

* Girls Night runs at Darlington's Civic Theatre from Tuesday until Saturday. Box Office: (01325) 486555.