SHAUN LOWTHORPE Bad Girls and former Casualty star Nicole Faraday will stoke the ire of the audience in this year's Norwich Theatre Royal pantomime Sleeping Beauty.

SHAUN LOWTHORPE

Nicole Faraday will stoke the ire of the audience in this year's Norwich Theatre Royal pantomime Sleeping Beauty.

As the wicked Morgan Le Fay, the Bad Girls and former Casualty star is used to playing the baddie.

This year's show, which runs from December 19 to January 22, takes in a King Arthur theme and is brought by the team behind the previous two pantos Aladdin and Jack And The Beanstalk.

The line-up also includes former Coronation Street star Brian Hibbard, as Dame Nanny Nicehands.

David Gant stars as Merlin and Rikki Jay returns to Norwich for the seventh year running as mischief maker Muddles.

The title role will be played by Vicki Carr, who is well-known to fans of Cromer seaside specials. Shane Cortese, who swept Sohpie Lawrence off her feet in Cinderella in 1999, is back as hero Sir Percival Lostalot, whose task is to wake the dozing damsel .

The production is devised and directed by Richard Gauntlett who co-wrote it with Rikki Jay. Musical director Roger Davison and choreographer Johnny Worthy return to complete the box office record-breaking team from the previous two pantomimes.

Kevin Sides, Theatre Royal spokesman, said: "It's a great time of year and it's one of the very few shows we produce ourselves. What we look for is people who are going to add real quality to the production."