THE Essex girl you used to know from West End musicals, Channel 4’s The Big Breakfast and Strictly Come Dancing has new strings to her bow.

Denise Van Outen is embarking on her first tour in Some Girl I Used To Know, a one-woman play co-written with Terry Ronald, who has worked with Kylie Minogue, Boyzone, Lulu, Sophie Ellis Bextor, Girls Aloud, Atomic Kitten and Westlife.

The tour will open in Yorkshire at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds, from January 30 to February 8 and will move on to Hull New Theatre from February 13 to 15.

Denise, who turns 40 on May 27, reveals the inspiration behind the new touring show.

“I absolutely loved doing Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Tell Me On A Sunday,” she says. “Well, I did once I got past being petrified of being on stage on my own. I loved the way that the predominately female audience related to the character.

“I remember my mum and my aunty and their friends loving the film Shirley Valentine the same way: a whole generation of women understood Shirley and related to her. I hope that Some Girl I Used to Know will have that same kind of relevance.”

The Basildon-born performer always has been a girl’s girl. “When we all get together, my girlfriends and I often find ourselves reminiscing about the past and our first loves. That’s where the idea came from,” she says.

“I wondered what would happen if someone got back in touch with their first love through social media.

“I wanted to explore the idea of a woman who thinks she can have it all, because there’s always a price to pay. And although my character is the opposite of Shirley Valentine, that sense of wanting something different is the common denominator.”

Step forward Stephanie Canworth, a woman to envy with her beauty, successful career, supportive husband and status as a media darling. However, a Facebook ‘poke’ from a blast-from-the-past transports her back to a place of candyfloss kisses, first loves and broken hearts that prompts her to ask if she is really living the life she wants?

Songs from the 1980s and 1990s accompany Stephanie as she ponders whether she should follow her heart or kick her nagging doubts into touch as she recalls days of big hair, party after party and high hopes.

“It’s a bit like the film Sliding Doors in that respect and you wonder which one will she go through,” says Denise. “I suppose it’s about redefining what you want and revaluating what you have. It’s a show about feelings. You can’t take away feelings; you can’t just turn them off.”

The Girl I Used To Know may be a female solo show but it carries the imprint of two men, not only songwriter, vocalist, producer and Becoming Nancy author Terry Ronald, but also musical supervisor Steve Anderson, a songwriter, producer and long-time collaborator with Kylie Minogue.

“We all worked together on Rent: Remixed in 2007 and we’ve stayed friends,” says Denise. “I’ve never put pen to paper this way before, but when I told Terry about my idea he loved it. Suddenly we found ourselves meeting up in a little coffee shop and working on a script. Because the story was so firmly in my head, the writing just flowed.”

The mix-tape soundtrack may be rooted in the Eighties and Nineties but that means Culture Club, Soft Cell and Donna Summer and not the more obvious pop hits of those Stock, Aitken and Waterman times.

“I wrote this long list of personal favourites and sent it to Steve,” says Denise. “I have very eclectic taste and there were some that were so cheesy that he just laughed at them, but we’ve ended up with some brilliant songs that really work with our story.”

Initially, the project gave Denise terrible butterflies, but a try-out at Leicester’s Curve theatre last year cured her fears.

“I did the Strictly arena tour last year, but that was dancing in the day and partying – I won’t lie, it was carnage – at night. But even though I’ve been offered tours before this will be my first,” she says. “Taking a show that I’m so passionate about around the country is very exciting for me.”

• Some Girl I Used To Know is suitable for age 12 upwards. Leeds tickets: 0113 213 7700 or wyp.org.uk; Hull tickets: 01482 300300 or hullcc.gov.uk/hullnewtheatre