EastEnders' Nigel Harmon plays gay ... in a period ballgown

There's a new six-part dramatic series starting over in the UK next month that sounds wonderfully exciting, not least of all because it features a soap hunk as a cross-dressing gay prostitute ... circa 1750. The series, City of Vice, tells the true tales of the Bow Street Runners, London's first police force, and their specific dealings with the world of prostitution.

One of the prostitutes in question is brought to powdered-and-corseted life by Nigel Harmon, a former EastEnders hunk, who plays a cross-dressing tart who is apparently also dating one of the policemen. Early reports say that Harmon's camp performance steals the show, although from some candid snaps from the set it looks as though things don't go terribly well for his character. Granted, this was the 18th century, so things were even more bleak for gay men even when they weren't prostitutes in ball gowns. And given that the show has been compared to Deadwood, it looks like bleak is the name of the game all around.

City of Vice starts in January on C4.