“I just said, ‘If you’re here, just tap the fucking table! Let’s cut the bullshit.’ And it did!” Cheryl laughs as she reminisces on Ghost Hunting with Girls Aloud, a seminal work of horror that has since been praised as one of the most iconic hours in British television (by Gay Twitter). We’re discussing the paranormal series as Cheryl makes her debut as a leading actor in 2:22 A Ghost Story, Danny Robin’s acclaimed West End play about a woman who is convinced her home has been infiltrated by a supernatural presence.

As a result of the community’s strong connection to the theatre, pop artists and the horror genre, Cheryl’s involvement with the play elicited a passionate response from the LGBT’s. She tells GAY TIMES: “When I’ve been out and about, the amount of the gay community that have come up and went, ‘We’re coming to the show. We’re coming in February.’ It’s unreal, I don’t think I’ve actually heard that from any straight people.”

Read ahead for our incredibly camp interview with Cheryl, where she discusses her new role in 2:22 A Ghost Story (for which she has received overwhelming praise from critics), her own personal experiences with paranormal phenomena and why, “Without the LGBTQ+ community, we wouldn’t have been Girls Aloud. I wouldn’t have gone on to be me, either.”

Cheryl, I’m so excited to watch you in 2:22 A Ghost Story.

I’m glad! Are you gonna come, then?

Absolutely. I love horror, pop stars and the theatre, so…

Match made in heaven. You’re gonna love it. I won’t give anything away, obviously, but it all came around in an unusual way. I was in a meeting with the writer of the play for a completely separate issue. I went from the meeting to watch 2:22 and that morning, me manager texts us and says, ‘You won’t believe this. The guy we’re meeting today wrote the play we’re seeing tonight.’ When we were in the meeting I say to him, ‘We’re going to see 2:22 tonight, I had no idea you’d written that,’ and he said, ‘While you’re there, why don’t you check it out and see if you feel like it’s something you’d like to be a part of.’ I did exactly that and as I was watching it I thought, ‘I’d love to do this, and I would enjoy doing it. It’s something new and different and exciting for me to get me teeth into.’

How eerie! Spooky instances occurred before you even signed up to the play.

Isn’t it? Exactly. That’s how I felt. I felt like it was meant to be.