Lee Mead loves pantomime. The 43-year-old singer and actor, shot to fame in 2007 in the BBC series Any Dream Will Do, when he won the title role in the West End revival of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, is still probably best known for being Joseph. But he has had several other high-profile roles in musical theatre - including in Wicked, Legally Blonde and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang - as well as some notable TV and film credits, most memorably as Ben 'Lofty' Chiltern in Casualty and Holby City.
But he is also a panto veteran. Lee will play the Prince in Sleeping Beauty, which runs at Darlington's Hippodrome theatre from Friday, December 6, to Thursday, December 31. Lee Mead who is starring as Prince Lee of Longnewton in Sleeping Beauty at Darlington Hippodrome (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT) It will be the 14th pantomime he has done since first being cast by the Crossroads production company as Jack in Jack and the Beanstalk in Southampton.
Highlights since then have included appearing in the first panto in 30 years at the London Palladium, as Prince Charming in Cinderella - "a great honour," he says. So how did Lee go from Joseph to being a regular on the pantomime circuit? “Good question," he says. "Crossroads asked me to do my first ever panto at The Mayflower Theatre in Southampton and my biggest regret was not doing it sooner - because I absolutely love it and this is my 14th year now.
"It’s just great fun. I used to watch panto as a kid growing up in my local t.
