G’dame! Home And Away star Lynne McGranger to appear in Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs at the Grand Opera House, York (From York Press)

G’dame! Home And Away star Lynne McGranger to appear in Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs at the Grand Opera House, York

10:21am Tuesday 28th July 2009 in News By Charles Hutchinson

Home And Away star Lynne McGranger transforms herself from the Wicked Queen to the Wicket Queen to announce her appearance in Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs at the Grand Opera House, York.

Away from home for a few weeks this summer, the cricket-loving soap star took time out from cheering on her beloved Australia in The Ashes at Lord’s and Egbaston to promote her third season in the York pantomime.

Here she is pictured practising her batting skills yesterday on the grass by Clifford’s Tower while staying with friends in York between Test matches. Upon her return to start rehearsals on November 30, she will be spinning a yarn to trick English rose Michelle Hardwick’s Snow White.

“If Australia win the Ashes, I can gloat, but if the Aussies lose, as the posh-speaking English Wicked Queen, I can say ‘I hate Aussies almost as much as I hate you children’…and maybe I’ll sprinkle some of the Ashes on a barbecue,” says Lynne. “Whatever, I’ll work the Ashes in somehow!

“Last time I was here, playing Witch Blackweed, England had just won the Rugby World Cup and I had to sing about the lovely Jonny Wilkinson.”

Lynne, who plays the good-hearted Irene Roberts in Home And Away, first appeared in a Grand Opera House pantomime as Fairy Peapod in Jack And The Beanstalk in 1999-2000 and strayed to the dark side for the first time as the evil Witch Blackweed in 2003-2004, again in Jack And The Beanstalk.

Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs will run from December 11 to January 3; box office 0844 847 2322 or online at grandoperahouseyork.org.uk