Expressandstar.com were on hand as the line up for the returning ‘Sleeping Beauty’ pantomime is unveiled at Birmingham’s Hippodrome.

Panto season is a peculiarly British tradition.

Every Christmas, theatres around the country are transformed with sequins and feathers, there are risque jokes and winks and more boos, hisses and cheers than have been heard all year.

But while the season for most of us starts and ends at Christmas, it is already underway at the Birmingham Hippodrome, where the very British brand of comedy capers and cabaret glitz was created.

The delightfully varied cast for this year’s Sleeping Beauty met for the first time this week.

It features X Factor smoothie Ray Quinn, former soap actress Lucy Evans and the fabulous dame Ceri Dupree – a good friend of the late great Danny La Rue.

At the helm is Joe Pasquale. The squeaky voiced King of the Jungle, who was dressed like a court jester and tinkling around with bells on his shoes, will play Muddles.

He said: “I love it, I’ve been doing it for 23 years because I love it.”

Joe is already well used to the Hippodrome stage.  He first performed on it in 1987 when he won Marti Caine’s New Faces, the forerunner to Britain’s Got Talent.

Since then he has been difficult to get rid of.

He said: “I love Birmingham at Christmas. I love the markets, I’ll go there, have a mulled wine, then I have to then go back and do the evening performance.”

Pre-sale tickets for Sleeping Beauty are already up on last year’s hugely successful Robin Hood.

Joe added: “You don’t feel the credit crunch in panto land. People are still spending their money. I think people want some sort of escapism.

“Television is a bit pants really isn’t it. There’s not a lot on television that is light relief, it’s all a bit depressing.”

But there is no room for ‘depressing’ here, as he jingles his little red boots and launches into his favourite joke.

He said: “Why did the Mexican throw his wife off the cliff? Because her wanted tequila… To-kill-her, get it?”

It is that brand of humour that makes Joe something of a legend to his co-star, 20-year-old Ray Quinn.

The young performer, who found fame on The X Factor, has been giggling at Joe all morning and admits he hopes he will be able to learn some of his comedy.

Ray said: “I think he’s absolutely hilarious. We only met each other this morning but we’ve just been laughing, I think we are going to have a really good time.”

The youngster from Liverpool is currently starring in the West End as Danny Zuko in Grease, hence his long quiffed hairstyle, which has got some of the girls around the theatre swooning.

He has been off the stage for the past week ,with a back injury caused by some too exuberant dancing.

He said: “I had to rest all week but I’m back on tonight which will be great.

“I’ve come a long way from X Factor to be performing one of the biggest roles in the West End and when that’s all finished I’ve got this pantomime, which is something a bit different for me.”

Ray is particularly pleased with the reception he has received from the cast and crew.

He said: “Everyone I work with now has always been really supportive about me coming from X Factor.  It was a brilliant move for me.

“I think the thing with shows like that is that they are very intense, seeing the Susan Boyle story made me feel really sad for her.

“The pressure of the final is massive, I remember how much I felt I had on my head when I was doing it but I always had the support of my family, I hope she gets that.

“I think she’s brilliant though. We all watched her didn’t we, and none of us expected that voice to come out of her.”

While it is Joe and Ray who have been hyped as the biggest draw for the show, the pair that will make the headlines.

But t is the dame, Ceri Dupree, who is perhaps the biggest coup.

Resplendent in head to toe sequins in green and purple and a peacock feathered hat which measured almost four feet wide, Ceri is a look back to the true glamour dames, like Danny la Rue, who was his icon and a personal friend.

For the past few years the Hippodrome dame has been ‘traditional’ in the industry sense, a man dressing up as a woman, as opposed to a female impersonator.

Terry Scott and Les Dawson favoured the traditional, hairy-chested type of dame.

But Ceri is all preened and perfect glamour.  He will have 20 costume changes in the show, the same number of wigs and hats, and two dressers to help out.

His eyelashes are at least two inches long and his make up two inches thick, it is a look that could only work under 4000 watts of light.

He said: “I bring all my own costumes, some I’ve got already, others I will have to get made. I M getting one made for the final which will cost £3,000.

“There’s going to be lots of glamour and a few novelty outfits, I’ve got one that looks like a toothpaste tube and I might bring that one along, with another that is a giant round goldfish bowl.

“I love a good pantomime.”