THE actress who made screaming the name 'Rick-eee' a catch phrase is hoping to boost her showbiz career and promote her new beauty product in Worcestershire this week.

Patsy Palmer, who is probably most famous for playing feisty red-head Bianca in BBC One soap EastEnders, will be donning her tap shoes and treading the boards at Malvern Theatres from tonight in the comedy Stepping Out.

And tomorrow, at 1pm, the star will be at Worcester's CrownGate to talk to shoppers about her new Palmer Cutler self-tanning skin care range.

Carolyn Mantle, CrownGate manager, said: "We are thrilled. It is great for the centre to be visited by such a high-profile personality as Patsy and we are sure our shoppers will enjoy meeting her."

It's been four years since Patsy quit EastEnders, the show that made her a household name.

Since then she has gone on to do a host of television, radio and theatre work, as well as releasing several fitness videos.

She took a break from acting for a while to ensure her three children Charley, Fenton and Emilia were happily settling into their new school.

When she was first offered Stepping Out, she turned it down.

"I didn't even want to know what it was," she said. "It could have been Hollywood for all I cared - I was like 'no, I'm not doing it'.

"It was always in the back of my mind, am I doing the right thing?

"The time crept on and it was still there for me to do it. The kids were settling in school and it was kind of like 'oh, this is still here'.

"They came back to me and asked if I would do it. I read the script, which was absolutely hilarious and I thought I really want to have a go of this."

But Patsy had one problem. The role requires a serious amount of tap dancing and she hadn't stepped into her tapping shoes since she was a small child.

"It wasn't really difficult to get back into though," she said. "The play is full of amazing characters. They're all so strong. It's a really good, fun play and I know people will really enjoy it."

n Stepping Out runs at Malvern Theatres until Saturday, May 14.