ROB McVeigh, alias "Rob The Builder" from BBC1's Any Dream Will Do, is looking to build on his princely turn in last winter's Grand Opera House pantomime in his return to the York stage this week.

"I must have bribed my way in," says South Yorkshireman Rob, who follows up his Prince in Show White And The Seven Dwarfs by appearing as Prince Charming in Cinderella from tomorrow to January 4 in New Pantomime Productions' 16th year at the Cumberland Street theatre.

"It'll be nice to have a fresh cast this year after doing Snow White for a few years. Different panto, different cast, different director [Stuart Wade], so it's going to be a nice change. The publicity says I'm playing Dandini, but I'm definitely playing the Prince – who swaps roles with Dandini – and I've done the Prince before in Harlow in Essex, so I know the role."

Rob held talks in May to return to York. "Everything was confirmed pretty quickly," he says. "I love panto. For me, it makes Christmas. It's all about the Christmas feeling and I don't think Christmas would be the same without it.

"My first panto was at Bradford with Billy Pearce and later I was very fortunate to work with Billy in his seaside special, The Billy Pearce Laughter Show, for 15 weeks. That was a family show: I got the blue version backstage, though we were still touching borders in the show."

Rotherham builder Rob found fame when progressing from South Yorkshire musical society lead roles to being one of seven finalists in Any Dream Will Do, the Beeb's 2007 talent show to find the new Joseph for Andrew Lloyd-Webber’s West End revival of Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

He went on to performOwe It All To You on the BBC’s Eurovision – Your Decision in 2008 and has since toured the country with Paul Daniels, Frank Carson, Cannon and Ball; performed alongside the American Four Tops; appeared in the Billy Pearce Laughter Show on Blackpool’s North Pier and played Bert Healey in Annie and Danny Cassidy in The Eva Cassidy Story on national tours.

This winter's Cinderella will be his fifth season in panto, but while pantomime remains the staple of the British winter theatre season, the old summertime favourite, the seaside variety show, is becoming increasingly rare by comparison. "There aren't many left," says Rob. "But I did do Cromer for two years running, two alternative shows, one each week, on the pier, hitting about 60,000 people in each summer."

Cruise ships are more his port of call now.

"This year's gone really well," he says. "I was on the Fred Olsen cruise ship, the Bouddica, for sixth months and we went all the way to the Amazon, to the Caribbean, the Adriatic and all the way up to Greenland, and it was one of the last ones they're going to make to there because gold, oil, everything, has been found there!"

On the seas, Rob performs in "lots of different 'production' shows, from a Rock'n'roll show to an Ocean show". "So every show is themed, doing songs like The Pirate King [fromThe PiratesOf Penzance] and Queen's Seven Seas Of Rhye, for example in the Ocean show," says Rob.

"It was two shows a night and the rest of the time was your own, so the real turn for me came when I was on there and I put together a one-man show, which I now do on cruise ships and for Warner Leisure Hotels and at the Haven caravan campsites. I do a West End show all themed from me being on the telly, telling stories of my time on Any Dream Will Do and who I've worked with. I also do songs from Oklahoma and lots of Rodgers and Hammerstein show songs."

His one-man cabaret show took shape after he met Lee Carrol, a "fly-on" act on the cruise ship circuit. "He saw me sing and said I should put together my own show, so he helped me to do that," recalls Rob.

Now he is back on dry land and the winter wonderland of pantomime awaits once more. "My first role when I came off the telly was panto, when I was just happy I'd got an agent, and never expected anything, but here I am, eight years later, still doing it, and broadening what I do all the time."

"Rob The Builder" does not envisage a return to building any time soon. "I've really lost the knack for plastering now," he says. "I did my nan's wall – just one wall, one straight wall, just one wall – and it took me four days.

"At the end of the day, it's a skill, and I hope I won't have to go back to it, but it's a good skill, so it's always there to fall back on."

Cinderella runs at the Grand Opera House, York, from tomorrow to January 4 2015. Box office: 0844 871 3024 or at atgtickets.com/york