BEDTIME will be late on Tuesday for one Chickerell schoolgirl who will be allowed to stay up to watch her television debut.

Ellie Rai Cleaver-Coles, nine, of North Square, will appear on Living TV’s chilling reality show Living with the Dead.

The Chickerell Primary School pupil plays a child ghost who supposedly haunts The Manor House at Langton Herring in Weymouth.

The show goes out at 9pm on Tuesday, April 28, and Ellie Rai, a pupil at Stagecoach Theatre Arts School, said she cannot wait to see it. “I’m allowed to stay up on Tuesday because I’m on television,” she said. “I will still record it though so I can watch it again and again and say I’m a movie star.”

The ghost hunters visited the house in March and needed the help of a nine-year-old girl with long dark hair.

They got in touch with Stagecoach principal Lindy Carr, who knew just the girl for the job. She said: “I immediately thought of Ellie because she has been with Stagecoach for four years, and she is more than capable and confident. It was nice to give her the opportunity to do it.

“They were very pleased with her and I know I made a good choice.”

It was Ellie Rai’s first professional role and she loved every minute. She said: “I was really shocked when I found out because I didn’t know it was coming. “I did enjoy it and it was really fun. I was a little bit scared at first, but I was concentrating so hard on what the director was saying to me I soon forgot about it.”

Dressed all in white, Ellie Rai had to walk solemnly up and down the stairs, twirl around dancing, and play with a frog in the garden. Her mum Julie Cleaver said she did a brilliant job. “She was so professional when she got in front of the camera so they didn’t have to do many takes,” she said. “It was really lovely to see and it was a good experience for her.

“I just really hopes she sticks with it because she loves acting.”

Ellie Rai has no intention of quitting now. “I want to be an actress on Doctor Who when I grow up,” she said. “I hope that maybe someone sees this programme and it helps me get into another show.”