BOYZONE singer Shane Lynch will team up with stars from EastEnders, Coronation Street and the pop world in York Barbican's Christmas pantomime, Robin Hood And The Babes In The Wood.

Staged by Jamie Alexander Wilson's production company Those Magic Beans in their York panto debut from December 21 to 31, the show will take 40-year-old Irishman Lynch to the dark side in the villainous role of the Sheriff of Nottingham.

This will be his fourth year as a panto baddie for Wilson's company, and when not on the road with Boyzone or being evil at Christmas, he travels the world as a Drift Championship driver.

Ben Adams, the lead singer from the 2001 BRIT Award-winning, chart-topping band A1, will play Robin Hood after previous panto seasons in Manchester, Milton Keynes and Woking.

Ricky Norwood, who had six years in the soap opera world as Fatboy in EastEnders before his Boxing Day exit in 2015, will play Silly Billy Carlet. He made the final of last year's Celebrity Big Brother and has performed in two previous Wilson pantos: Robin Hood in Gravesend and Sleeping Beauty in Sevenoaks.

Michael Starke, from Brookside (Sinbad for 16 years), The Royal and Coronation Street, will be on dame duty as Nurse Nellie in a return to York after starring as the Emperor of China in Aladdin at the Grand Opera House in 2006-2007.

He recently played Edna Turnblad in the national tour of Hairspray, another role that required him to dress from the female wardrobe.

Ben Ofoedu, from the pop combo Phats And Small and boy band supergroup Boys Allowed, will play Little John; Anna Kumble, alias Nineties' pop singer Lolly, will be the Fairy of the Forest, in her eighth panto season with Wilson's company, and Jaz Ellington, from the first series of The Voice, will complete the panto cast as Friar Tuck after making his panto debut last year as the King in Jack And The Beanstalk in Gravesend.

A live band will feature too, while the producers will hold open auditions in York on June 16 and 17 in a search for a new panto star to play Maid Marian.

Tickets for the first Barbican winter pantomime since 2012 are on sale on 0844 854 2757, at yorkbarbican.co.uk or in person from the Barbican box office.