IT’S A role Michelle Collins has dreamed about since she was a little girl – Miss Scarlett in Cluedo.

The former EastEnders and Coronation Street star is about to feature in a stage version of the classic whodunit board game that is coming to Woking, and her love of the character goes back many years.

“We all wanted to be Miss Scarlett,” says Michelle, recalling her childhood. “Me and my sister would go and stay with my five cousins and we would all fight for that part. Because I’m the bossy one, I would always get it.

“It’s funny that board games have brought us back together during lockdown, when you find out that Cluedo was actually invented during the Second World War. People were stuck together during air raids, and played it almost out of boredom.

“It adds a lovely dollop of nostalgia to the fun, and the murder, of Cluedo.”

A play based on a film based on a board game may sound a bit of a strange concept, but it makes perfect sense to Michelle, who played Cindy Beale in EastEnders for eight years and then Stella Price in Coronation Street for another three.

She’s also been in everything from Doctor Who through to Casualty (several times) to Sunburn and Two Thousand Acres of Sky.

“It’s a comedy whodunit,” she says of the story of a group of disparate people who turn up to a mansion one dark and stormy night at the behest of the one person they all have in common – their blackmailer.

“I’ve done a Miss Marple and everyone loves those, and it’s great to dress up in period clothes, 1940s clothes. So glamorous

“I’ll have to have my own take on Miss Scarlet but it’s really exciting to play someone who, like most women, has more going on than you see on the surface. She has a history. She’s very smart, looks glam and dressed up but she’s the smart cookie.

“This will be very different, very funny, very dry, a little dark at times but ultimately great entertainment. It’s the perfect climate for something feel-good like this.”

Cluedo is at the New Victoria Theatre in Woking from Monday 21 February until Saturday 26 February.