I'm actually managing to have a BBQ in a few weeks' time," Sophie Lawrence ells me while doing her ironing.

"Usually on tour you only get a Sunday off every now and again when you rush home, sleep, do your washing and then get back to work. But this is a series of one-nighters so I do actually get some time off," she says in wonder.

"My friends usually phone me up and say 'when can we get together' and I say 'in about seven months' time.' But they're all used to it by now."

So is she. Having been in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Boogie Nights, Daisy Pulls It Off and Alan Bennett's Talking Heads, Simply Ballroom is the latest credit on her lengthy CV, which also boasts numerous acting roles and TV presenting.

And yet Sophie hasn't a bad word to say about anyone, the hours, the driving or the touring. It's in her blood.

But having graduated straight from the infamous Sylvia Young Theatre School to Albert Square aged 15, she never did do nine-to-five.

Looking back now, she'd always hoped she'd be a dancer in musicals, but after spending years in EastEnders, she shelved her ambitions.

"I remember when I got the part I was secretly gutted because it meant I couldn't be in 42nd Street, which was on in the West End," she laughs.

"But I'm under no illusions that had it not been for EastEnders I wouldn't be doing any of the things I'm doing now, even if it was 20 years ago.

"Because although I got away from it, I've built a whole career on it, and it annoys me when people say they don't want to talk about their first big role because it was the greatest beginning and it was a dream job, but for me there were a lot of other things I wanted to go and do."

And right now, she's living the dream - every night gets dressed up in the fake eyelashes, tan tights and a Cinderella outfit to waltz around the stage, singing, dancing and presenting acts from the TV series Strictly Come Dancing.

"I enjoy getting all dressed up. It's very girlie, she says, "although at home I'm a real scruff bag. I just went to the shop in my pyjamas to get some milk with an old overcoat over the top."

Neither does Sophie worry about what's on the horizon, saying that something always turns up.

Next is a new musical with David Essex, which she is choreographing.

But the real reason Sophie is still so prevalent on the musical circuit is because she's a trouper and loves every minute of it.

"Yesterday I had the worst headache, so that I could hardly see, and we had to drive for hundreds of miles and I just didn't know how I could get up on stage and do the act. But there's a built-in mechanism somewhere and when the show starts you just forget everything else because as cheesy as it sounds, the show must go on."

Simply Ballroom is at Oxford's New Theatre on Wednesday, June 18. For tickets, call the box office on 0844 8471588.