SHE is best known as Corrie loud mouth Cilla Battersby-Brown but stage and screen actress Wendi Peters will tackle several roles in a satirical First World War musical.

From a soldier in the trenches to the wife of General Haig in Oh What a Lovely War, the 46-year-old is a dab hand at swift costume changes.

After opening to public and critical acclaim earlier this month, it will be staged at the Opera House, Manchester, from Tuesday, February 24 to Saturday, February 28.

Wendi, who also plays suffragette Sylvia Pankhurst, said: "We all play about five or six characters each.

"We are constantly doing quick changes, adding coats and moustaches.

"I'm in the trenches too so I'm a bloke in that.

"I get to do a really good variety of stuff."

Oh What a Lovely War, which originally premiered at Theatre Royal Stratford East in 1963, uses popular wartime songs to depict the lives of soldiers on the Western Front and what was happening at home, also mocking the era's politicians and generals.

Joan Littlewood's pioneering show was considered controversial when first staged and even led to shift in attitude about the conflict in which more than 37 million people died worldwide.

Told through songs and documents in the form of a seaside pierrot entertainment of the period, Wendi describes it as a "show within a show" and musical numbers include It’s a Long Way to Tipperary, Pack Up Your Troubles and Keep the Home Fires Burning.

Although the musical looks at war and the terrible atrocities, taking the audience through World War One from the view of a soldier, Wendi adds: "We still want people to know that it's a great evening's entertainment."

This revival, directed by multiple Olivier Award-winner Terry Johnson, opened at Theatre Royal Stratford East before heading out on tour.

It also stars Ian Reddington, who played Richard Cole aka Tricky Dicky in EastEnders, and, more recently, hapless drummer Vernon Tomlin in Coronation Street, as well as former Emmerdale actor and Bolton Octagon Theatre regular Christopher Villers.

Away from the musical and mother-of-one Wendi has a number of projects on the go, including a television adaptation of a Jacqueline Wilson children's book.

She said: "There are a couple of things, a play that a friend of mine has written and I've just done a series for the BBC called Hetty Feather."

At the end of last year, she reprised the role of Cilla for six weeks after seven years away from ITV soap Coronation Street.

Wendi, who appeared in Irving Berlin's White Christmas at The Lowry in 2012, said: "It was lovely to see everyone.

"She came back a little bit nicer rather than shouting and being vile."

Will the actress — who plays mum to Chesney and Fiz, played by Jennie McAlpine who is on maternity leave from the soap — return after her character's exit suffering from osteoporosis?

She said: "I've no idea.

"She has popped off to Wolverhampton with Fiz.

"Jennie has had her baby, I don't know when Jennie is planning on going back."

As the character has not been killed off there is every chance the fiery redhead could return but Wendi also has her sights set on other projects.

She said: "I would love to do a sitcom.

"It's a case of being in the right place at the right time."

She is also an avid fan of the BBC's Great British Bake Off and is enjoying the current Comic Relief special, as well as gearing up to display her own baking skills at shows later this year, including The Cake and Bake Show.

Wendi, who regularly makes brownies for her fellow cast members, said: "I love the bake off.

"Once all these programmes started, everyone became obsessed.

"I've been doing it for a long, long time but more regularly since I did MasterChef (in in 2009).

"I loved making the puddings on that."

Oh What A Lovely War will be at the Opera House, Manchester, from Tuesday, February 24 to Saturday, February 28.