As Tiffany in EastEnders, Martine McCutcheon has played roles from beautician-turned-barmaid to girlfriend of her brother's bisexual boyfriend. She is now about to play a real-life role as a pop singer.
Ms McCutcheon has just become the latest in a stream of television stars to cross over into the music business by signing a recording contract with Virgin, one of EMI's record companies.
Last month, another EMI record company signed Emma Boundy, a sales assistant in Lakesiders, the BBC docudrama. She hopes to emulate the success of Jane McDonald from The Cruise, whose debut album topped the charts this summer. Later this month, Sony's Columbia label will release the first album by Matthew Marsden, who played Chris in Coronation Street.
Television actors have periodically surfaced in the pop charts over the years from Clive Dunn of Dad's Army to Teletubbies. Yet the trend accelerated this summer. One encouraging precedent is the success of Natalie Imbruglia, the Australian soap star whose Left Of The Middle album has sold 4.7 million copies worldwide since last autumn. Yet she is being marketed as a conventional pop star by RCA, her record label, whereas most singing TV stars aim at the middle-of-the-road market by rerecording classic songs.
Middle-of-the-road music can be lucrative as Robson & Jerome, the Soldier, Soldier actors proved by selling 8.5 million records for RCA during their brief recording career in the mid-1990s. But it is also one of the least glamorous genres, which tends to be ignored or derided by the critics.
Record executives have traditionally been as sceptical as the critics. "One of my biggest problems is that none of my staff would have wanted to sign Robson & Jerome. All they're interested in is impressing their peers by finding hip acts like DJ Shadow," complained the chairman of one of the biggest British music groups.
Parochialism aside, record companies also need to change their marketing tactics when dealing with middle-of-the-road artists. Such acts appeal to older consumers, who do not often buy music and would be unlikely to respond to conventional promotional ploys such as reviews, releasing singles to secure radio time and relaying videos on MTV.
Focus did not bother to advertise Jane McDonald's album, nor did it issue a single, knowing it would have been unlikely to receive much radio exposure. Instead, it ran promotions with supermarkets, such as J Sainsbury and Asda, to attract the attention of people who had seen her sing on The Cruise.
Ms McDonald's album became the first to debut at the top of the music charts without releasing a single, and has sold 170,000 copies in six weeks.
Her success, coupled with growing financial pressure on record companies in the sluggish global music market, has prompted other labels to drop their taboos about middleof-the-road acts.
"A few years ago we'd have bid for Emma Boundy of Lakesiders against maybe one other company," says Simon Cowell, the RCA executive who signed Robson & Jerome. "Instead, nine or 10 were bidding for her, and the asking price went through the roof."
