Seventies heart-throb David Essex, who has joined the cast of EastEnders, will be swapping Walford for Bradford when he brings a show based on his early life to the city.

The singer and actor, who plays Eddie Moon in the BBC1 soap, heads the cast of a musical called All the Fun of the Fair, featuring several of his hits including Hold Me Close, Silver Dream Machine and Gonna Make You a Star.

Set around a travelling funfair, the show is described as “a musical merry-go-round of love, loss, laughter and loyalty”, featuring crafty cons, dodgems, death-defying feats, fairground horses, fights, romance and rock ‘n’ roll.

Mr Essex, 63, grew up working on fairgrounds before shooting to fame in Godspell in 1971. Film producer David Puttnam later cast him in his movie That’ll Be The Day and the sequel, Stardust. Mr Essex went on to write and star in the musical Mutiny and created the role of Che in the original 1978 production of Evita. More recently, his stage roles have included Footloose and Aspects Of Love.

In EastEnders he is set to create tensions in the Moon household as the uncle of Alfie, played by Shane Ritchie. All The Fun Of The Fair runs at the Alhambra from October 25 to 29. Tickets are available on (01274) 432000.

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