X FACTOR and Dancing on Ice star Ray Quinn will be taking centre stage in this year’s Clacton’s Princes Theatre pantomime.

Preparations are already well underway for the spectacle, which has already been announced as Peter Pan.

The show will again be produced by award-winning Polka Dot Pantomimes.

Ray first appeared in the Liverpool soap Brookside before being named as the runner-up to Leona Lewis in the X Factor.

He went on to win Dancing On Ice in 2009 and was crowned Champion of Champions in the 2014 series – as well as winning Get Your Act Together in 2015 with a talent for impressions.

Musically, Ray has a platinum album to his name with Doing It My Way – a swing selection which entered the UK album charts at number one when it was released in 2007.

No stranger to the theatre, he has appeared and starred in several pantos during his career, as well as West End musicals Grease and Legally Blonde.

He is currently on the Dancing On Ice live tour, and this summer will play the lead in the musical tour of Summer Holiday, playing Don – the role made famous by Sir Cliff Richard in the 1960s film of the same name.

Speaking on his upcoming panto role, Quinn said: “I am delighted to be taking the lead role of Peter Pan at the Princes Theatre in Clacton this Christmas.”

Last year’s panto, also put on by Polka Dot Pantomimes, broke box office records at the Tendring Council-run theatre.

Council leisure boss Mick Skeels is delighted at the casting announcement.

“To have lined up such an acting and musical talent of this calibre so early is a real coup for the Princes Theatre,” he said.