As a young schoolboy, David Essex dreamed of becoming a professional footballer, and was signed up by his beloved West Ham United, but as a teenager he developed a passion for music which set him on a very different path, and ultimately led to superstardom. It wasn't, however, an easy start. Scraping a living on the edges of show business was a hard slog, and he endured many disappointments. Then aged 23, he went along to an audition for a new musical called "Godspell" and won the role of Jesus that was to shoot him to fame. Within a year he was starring in the smash hit film, "That'll Be the...