Beaker half-full: Universal attempt a British Miley Cyrus

Here's one fresh from the flipchart at a company brainstorm: Universal Records have decided that what the UK needs is a British Miley Cyrus, and have set about making it so:

Tracey Beaker star Dani Harmer is set to battle it out in the charts with the likes of Alexandra Burke and Lily Allen by launching a career as a pop star!

The CBBC actress has signed a record deal worth up to £3 million with the Universal/Decca music label.

Burke has had a busy week - she's also taken on the job of playing a grown-up Tracy Beaker in a series which follows the character from Sainsburys' kids stationery range after she leaves care. It's going to be on CBBC, so presumably Beaker won't slide in to the crime-drugs-prison spiral that bedevils a lot of people as they leave the care system and struggle with minimal support.

And expectations for the series are high. How high? Well, the Newcastle Journal seems to be expecting miracles:

How Tracy Beaker will save region

That makes it sound unlikely that Beaker will end up working the streets to support a crack habit, although I'd love to see next year's Sainsburys pencil cases if she did.

Who said "Tucker's Luck"? That kind of unconstructive use of lessons from history isn't helpful, you know. There's every chance that people who are adult will really want to spend time watching a character they liked as a child, and wouldn't view going back to Tracy Beaker like they were being asked to do finger painting at a business meeting; while the kids who identify with the child Tracy Beaker can't wait to watch a programme about trying to make sense of the Job Centre Plus and housing benefit forms.

Somehow, amongst all this, Harmer is going to try and build a pop career that justifies an alleged three million quid investment.

Just one thing, though: isn't she a little old to be the British Miley Cyrus?

[Thanks to @jonnybull for the tip]