STARS of television will be heading east in December to perform in a professional pantomime at Lowestoft's Marina Theatre.The Journal can exclusively reveal that the town's first professional pantomime for almost half a century will be Peter Pan in a run starting on December 11.

STARS of television will be heading east in December to perform in a professional pantomime at Lowestoft's Marina Theatre.

The Journal can exclusively reveal that the town's first professional pantomime for almost half a century will be Peter Pan in a run starting on December 11.

Ken Farrington, known for his role as Tom King in the TV soap Emmerdale will be joined on stage by Jamie Rickers, presenter of GMTV's top rating Toonattick, and Hollyoaks star Sarah Jane Buckley, pictured

Ken, also known as Annie Walker's wayward son Billy in Coronation Street, and Jamie, who attracts big audiences to his children's television show, head the cast which is being produced by the team behind the stage version of Disney's Beauty and The Beast.

Taking the role of the villainous Captain Hook, Ken said this week: “After over 45 years in the business I'm am absolutely delighted to be making my pantomime debut at the Marina and very much looking forward to trying out my evil Captain Hook on the people of Lowestoft.”

Sarah takes the role of Mrs Darling and the company will also include the Nitwits Acrobatic Troupe, live musicians and dancers.

Peter Pan will be the first resident professional pantomime in the town since the early 1960s.

Tickets start at £5 each with concessions available for the over 60s, children, students. Family tickets and party rates are also available. A number of shows have been scheduled to allow for school parties and on December 30 there will also be a sign language interpreted performance.

Marina manager Martin Halliday said: “We are delighted to announce such a strong cast for our first pantomime. The company behind the production has an excellent reputation and we believe our ticket pricing offers great value for money.”

Martin Dodd, for producers UK Productions, said: “We are looking forward to working with the management of the Marina to present an exciting and lavish production of one of the greatest stories ever told - Peter Pan, which will not only contain all of the traditional pantomime production values, but will also make use of our hi-tech CGI (computer generated imagery), to really bring to life those flying sequences.”

Performances run from December 11 through to January 4 and tickets go on sale today. For more information or to book seats call the Marina box office on 01502 533200.