Former Emmerdale star Amy Nuttall is having a loverly time as the star of My Fair Lady.

AMY Nuttall is quite frankly surprised to hear so many favourable comparisons with Audrey Hepburn as she brings Eliza Doolittle and My Fair Lady to the North-East until the end of May.

Hepburn, the screen icon, played the role in the 1964 film and Nuttall, who has moved into musicals through the less glamorous route of ITV's Emmerdale, admits to finding her whirlwind conversion to singing star quite a challenge.

"It's all the costume and the wig that makes me look anything like Audrey Hepburn, it's nothing to do with me. I saw the film as a kid but I didn't study it for that reason. A lot of people have come away from the show and said I'm just like her, but I don't think so. I take it as a huge compliment, " she replies modestly about her performances at Sunderland's Empire.

So how has she coped with switching from her Bolton background to become the fiesty 'gor blimey' flowergirl who is turned into a society beauty by Professor Henry Higgins, by way of the Woolpack and darkest Yorkshire?

"Cameron Makintosh brought in a vocal coach, not just for me but all members of the cast, because it's important to get it right. I've always played around with accents and I think you get away with a lot more on stage than on a TV or film set, " Amy replies.

The hardest challenge for her has been the constant action required from Eliza. "We touch upon dancing but I run around a lot and, apart from the very beginning, I have to move around a lot, singing at the same time. Oh my God, that's hard, " she laughs.

Amy's idea of Eliza's future is as a colleague for Higgins rather than as a wife.

"I think the age difference is too great, " says the 23-year-old revealing that co-star Christopher Cazenove is currently recovering from a minor throat operation. "Hopefully, he will be back but it depends on the success of the operation and the work he does with a vocal coach, " Amy adds.

Despite having made her professional debut as a 16-year-old Christine in the 2000 touring version of Phantom Of The Opera, Amy admits she could easily have slipped into Emmerdale as Chloe Atkinson for many years and left her singing voice behind.

A combination of taking Celebrity Stars In Their Eyes by storm, singing as Sarah Brightman, and a determination not to be typecast led to a departure from the popular early evening soap.

"I hadn't got anything organised when I left in February 2005 but I was offered a recording contract with EMI Classics, " says the singer, who was nominated for The Classical Brit Awards. "I lost out to Katherine Jenkins, which is what I expected, but I never thought in a million years I'd be nominated in the first place, " says Amy.

When the year-long run of My Fair Lady ends she'll be going back into the recording studio to make a follow-up album, and is keen to compose some of the tracks.

Now based in London, the one thing she doesn't miss is all the media interest in her relationship with fellow Emmerdale star Ben Freeman.

"I was only 18 and I was a bit naive about what was going to happen in the newspapers. At first I used to phone up my parents to tell them the stories weren't true, and then I realised that they trusted me to do the right things and stopped worrying, " she says.

And as for current romance.

"I simply haven't got time for a man in my life, " Amy quips, sounding uncannily like confirmed singleton Henry Higgins.