'Kat' in a corset to play Marie Lloyd
May 11, 2007 
Already famous for playing the rather busty barmaid Kat Slater/Moon in BBC soap Eastenders, Jessie Wallace is adding another raucous character to her repertoire.
The actress will play music-hall legend Marie Lloyd in a new BBC series, where she will be sporting many a Victorian and Edwardian-style corset, true to the costume of the time, if a little more comfortable.
When the Independent interviewed the former soapstar on set she was dressed in full costume complete with a corset and a low-cut, billowing Edwardian dress.
Marie Lloyd was famous for her renditions of old cockney favourites such as My Old Man Said Follow the Van as well as saucier songs A Little Bit of What You Fancy Does You Good and Oh! Mr Porter.
Rhonda Smith, the show's producer told the Independent that Marie Lloyd enjoyed such notoriety not unknown to other famous corset-fans.
"You have to remember that her level of fame was equivalent of someone such as Madonna today - she was known across the world," said Smith. "When she died, more than 100,000 people lined the streets in the East End of London."
© Adfero Ltd
