After a seven-year absence Wendi Peters has just been back on our screens as Cilla in Coronation Street, a woman who has pulled scams, battled skin cancer, abandoned her young son and most recently been diagnosed with osteoporosis.

But the 46-year-old says going back to her “first love“, the theatre, to star in a revival of Oh What a Lovely War!, at Theatre Royal Stratford East, is a bigger and more hard-hitting challenge.

The satirical musical about World War One premiered at the theatre in 1963 after Joan Littlewood adapted the play from Charles Chilton’s work for radio, and it was an immediate smash hit, transferring to the West End and Broadway, and receiving four Tony Award nominations including Best Musical.

This new production, directed by Terry Johnson, coincides with the centenary of the Great War and sees Wendi play numerous characters including a Serbian stall-holder, a musical star, a Lady and a Lancashire lass.

“I love doing musicals because they are hard work,“ says the Blackburn-born actress who came to London to study acting in her 20s and lived in Walthamstow for 14 years.

“People think it’s an easy option acting wise. But can you sing, dance and act for two hours? That’s what I love – the variety of work I can do in this.“

Staged as a pierrot show, it juxtaposes cheery sketches, comedy and songs such as It’s a Long Way to Tipperary and Pack up Your Troubles with harsh images and facts about what really happened in the war.

Wendi says: “You get the ups and downs and it’s quite cheeky, but it has a real heart to it and makes you think ’The amount of men killed? Why did it happen?’

“It’s almost a play with music, which is challenging because you’re not just there to entertain. You want people to go away and think about what they have watched for the last two hours. And I think they will.”

While the audience are soaking up the atmosphere and emotion of the iconic piece, Wendi will be running around back stage trying to remember which costume to put on next and which part to play.

“We are all on and off all the time, and there’s no going back to the dressing room for a cup of tea. We have a peg backstage with all our costume changes and it is a case of ’What do I need to put on now? Who am I being now?’ in order to get me through the next character.

“It is fabulous fun working at it. Today we have a dialect coach coming in because there are a huge amount of accents to do, and we have had a drill sergeant in.

“I have a couple of musical numbers, so it’s nice to get back to my musical theatre routes.“ Wendi’s first venture onto the stage was in ballet shows as a little girl and she grew up longing to emulate the stars she saw on screen.

“I loved watching all those Hollywood musicals as a child and that’s what I spent my weekend doing and what I wanted to do.“

Her first professional job was in panto at the Crucible Centre in Sheffield and she got her first taste of starring in a musical in Hello Dolly, which is where she met husband Kenny Linden.

The couple lived in Walthamstow until 2001, when they moved to Chorelywood to raise their daughter Gracie, who by chance starred in a school production of Oh What a Lovely War! at the end of last year.

“Yes they did it last November, so I had just said ’yes’ to this job, and the following weekend went to see her on stage. She was doing some of the parts I’m doing, so she did it first. I’m copying her, “ laughs Wendi.

She also has a fortuitous connection to her castmates Ian Reddington, who she studied with at London Studio Centre with and who went on to star in Coronation Street and EastEnders; and Christopher Villiers who starred in Emmerdale and who she met at soap awards over the years.
"I love ensemble pieces where everyone pulls together and it’s not all about one person," says Wendi.
"It’s nice to show that we do other things. because I think sometimes people forget, when you are in a soap and it’s so high profile,  that you have a career and did other things beforehand and you have done other things since."“

Theatre Royal Stratford East, Gerry Raffles Square, E15 1BN, January 29 to February 7. Details: 020 8534 0310, stratfordeast.com