Singer-actor is as busy as ever

He has been run over by Carol Jackson, rescued little Amy Mitchell from a fire and is struggling to piece together a broken relationship with his estranged son, Michael.

And, since he’s played by David Essex, no less, Eddie is setting many a female viewer’s heart fluttering.

David is relishing his role in EastEnders, but this autumn he’s taking a break from the Square to tour with a show inspired by his first album.

All The Fun Of The Fair is set around a travelling funfair, the focal point for “a musical merry-go-round of love, loss, laughter and loyalty”.

With crafty cons, candy floss, dodgems and death-defying fairground feats and fights, it’s all played out against a score featuring David’s hits including Winter’s Tale, Hold Me Close, Gonna Make You A Star, Silver Dream Machine and Rock On.

David plays funfair owner Levi Lee, a widower struggling to deal with his rebellious teenage son’s tangled love life.

David grew up working on fairgrounds before he became every teenage girl’s pin-up, the curly-haired, twinkly-eyed dreamboat of the early 1970s.

As a singer/songwriter, his career has spanned concerts, records, theatre, film and TV. He shot to fame in Godspell in 1971, leading movie producer David Puttnam to cast him in That’ll Be The Day, co-starring Ringo Starr, and the sequel, Stardust, about pop star Jim Maclaine.

He wrote and starred in the musical Mutiny and created the role of Che in the original 1978 production of Evita. More recently he has appeared in Footloose and Aspects Of Love.

David describes music as his first love. “There’s a spirituality about it,” he says. “I never wanted to be famous. I started as a drummer in a blues band – I chose to be a drummer so I could hide behind the cymbals. I found fame and adulation embarrassing.

“I’d be marched off-stage by security men after a concert and thrown into a hotel suite with the audience’s screams still ringing in my ears.”

David had already spent a decade in the music business by the time fame came along, and says he knows what it’s like to “live hand-to-mouth in a van” on the road with a band.

“I had a triple whammy of success. I was starring in the West End in Godspell, That’ll Be The Day was doing well in cinemas and Rock On was at the top of the American charts. But it all happened when I’d been in music for the best part of ten years,” he says.

This year he has entered a new phase of his career thanks to EastEnders, a show his mother was a fan of.

“I’d never done anything like this before. When you’re doing a film you have a lot of time, when you’re doing a stage show you have rehearsals, but here you don’t really know what you’re doing until a day before. It’s a great adventure for me,” he says.

“Some of the cast have been here more than 20 years – it’s like coming into a new school. But they’ve been tremendously respectful and welcoming. I’m full of respect for them because there’s very little rehearsal time and the performances they bring are extraordinary.”

He adds: “If I didn’t respect the show, I wouldn’t have gone into it. I’d been due to appear before in another role, and the reason that didn’t happen was a timing issue really – I had an album then a tour to do.

“I think we probably could have made something out of that character, who was Honey’s father. But Eddie has much more texture – there’s a lot more weight to this character.

“He’s an ex-boxer, he has a chequered past. He’s not a bad guy, but there’s a massive rift between Eddie and his son.”

Aged 64, David is excited about the future. “There’s talk of All The Fun Of The Fair becoming a film next year, which would be good, and I’m also supposed to be doing another film about boxing,” he says. “So there is a lot going on – but I’m here and I’m enjoying myself.”

* All The Fun Of Fhe Fair is on at the Alhambra from October 25 to 29. For tickets, ring (01274) 432000.