She could have been auditioning for an unlikely role in Coronation Street.

Despite appearances, however, Amy Winehouse wasn’t performing an impromptu impression of Hilda Ogden, but engaging in a spot of late spring cleaning in her own erratic fashion.

The chart-topping singer decided to protect her trademark beehive with a colourful strip of cloth – drawing inevitable comparisons with the headscarf Hilda wore almost permanently in her time on the soap opera from 1964 to 1987.

Double take: Amy takes out the trash, while Hilda does some cleaning

The pop star – who completed her look with a pair of pink Marigolds – decided to do her household chores late on Friday night and began by bringing out two large bags of rubbish.

Then the 24-year-old, who has sold nearly 11million albums worldwide, hit a stumbling block: she discovered she had no money to buy bleach.

She managed to cadge £40 from photographers waiting outside her North London home, saying she needed the money for ‘some stuff for the house’.

A few minutes later her friend Mick Whitnall, the lead guitarist of Pete Doherty’s band Babyshambles, left the house with the cash and returned with toilet paper, bottles of cleaning fluid and cloths.

The grateful singer later came out to ask the photographers if any of them had children – and gave one a tank top with Too Much Rock & Roll written on the front, saying: ‘It doesn’t fit me and I won’t wear it.’

Amy's late-night cleaning spree capped another strange week for the troubled singer. On Thursday, she was given the main song-writing prize at the Ivor Novello awards, the music industry’s Oscars.

But she did not turn up on time, leaving her father Mitch to pick up the trophy. He said: ‘I don’t know what I’m doing up here. Amy unfortunately couldn’t make it but she’s getting better and she sends you all her love.’

When she did arrive she appeared to try to quell reports that her marriage to Blake Fielder-Civil was about to end. She said she had written her songs ‘for Blake’ and wore a heart with his name on it.

She also confirmed she will be appearing at the Glastonbury Festival.