Ex-EastEnders star Jessie Wallace has signed up for an all-singing all-dancing TV role as music hall star Marie Lloyd. "Kat Slater" returns to the East End for the BBC drama about the Victorian vaudeville legend. Lloyd, whose songs included My Old Man Said Follow The Van and A Little Of What You Fancy Does You Good, was a household name at the turn of the 20th Century. The East End theatre star scandalised respectable society with a string of love affairs. Jessie, 35, whose own love life has also been troubled, said of the BBC4 80-minute drama: "This is my dream role. I'm so excited. I still keep pinching myself. I can't believe I'm playing her. "She was the Madonna of her age. She tried everything first and was really racy. "She went from rags to riches and it's a shame that she has been forgotten about. It's great to bring all this music back." Marie Lloyd will be the star's second project - she played a single mother in BBC drama A Class Apart - after she quit EastEnders as Kat in 2005. Filming begins on the drama, part of the channel's Edwardian season of programmes launched today, in the East End of London in February. BBC4 controller Janice Hadlow said: "It's a real coup to have Jessie Wallace as the lead in this exciting new drama, a major component of our Edwardian season. She will bring something very special to the role as the greatest music hall star of all time."
