YORKSHIRE pantomime legend Bill Pearce is to star in the comedy musical Seriously Dead at the Grand Opera House, York, on Thursday.

Joining the Bradford Alhambra "silly Billy" will be Tommy Cannon, from comedy double act Cannon and Ball, who lives at Kelfield, near Selby, and Benidorm regular Crissy Rock.

Written by Rock and fellow cast member Leah Bell, with an original score by Mike Redway, this uplifting new show tells the tale of guardian angel Thelma Henderson, who is barred from gaining entry through the Pearly Gates as heaven’s admission system has gone digital and her paperwork is incorrect after a badly timed accident. Cue a “bonkers plot that proves life’s party never ends, it simply moves to another location".

Pearce will play café boss Billy Blenkinsopp, who is eager to please everyone, but is easily dragged into situations beyond his control, and still secretly in love with old schoolfriend Thelma.

"I had a little show at the Scarborough Spa Theatre a couple of years ago that Leah came to see and we met afterwards," recalls Billy. "She said she was in a show called Dirty Dusting (about an ageing cleaner-turned-sex-chat-worker) and mentioned that she and Crissy had written another show, Seriously Dead, that had the perfect part for me: Billy Blenkinsopp.

"The first time we did the show was in autumn 2016 and then we went out in the spring for a big, massive, long tour, and now we're going out again, starting in York.

"Last time, Frazer Hines played bank robber Albert Blunderstone, and this time Leah managed to persuade Tommy Cannon to do it, which is a big feather in her cap because he'd just done Last Laugh In Vegas when she asked him."

In Seriously Dead, one ordinary day in the quiet, fictional little town of Olwinskirk, somewhere in the north, a chain of extraordinary events begins to unfold, bringing the lives of Betty, Albert, Billy and undertaker Tristan de Winter to an uncomfortable crossroads.

Albert Blunderstone has been hiding abroad for ten years after he committed a bank robbery with small-time crook Nodger Wilson. On the day he flies home to attend a funeral, he runs into Betty, who used to be married to Nodger, and in an attempt to discover what happened to his share of the dosh, he befriends Betty and her current husband, eager-to-please Billy Blenkinsopp.

"Leah said the role would really suit me, and when I got the script, she was right. It was great for me, with no 'ten minutes of business for just Billy', unlike in the Alhambra pantomime, but I could still add my own bits to it, honing it and changing it, but putting everything through Leah for approval."

It is not giving too much away to say that one by one, everyone dies in Seriously Dead, "but it's funny, that's the main thing,"says Billy.

"One thing I love about my job is that, generally speaking, I try to make people happy and I don't think there's anything better than that. It's lovely to get the laughs.

"It does seem strange that a play full of deaths should be uplifting, because there are a lot of taboos about death, as everyone is frightened of dying, but this is a lighthearted look at it, and the thing about laugher is that it doesn't half release tension."

Once Seriously Dead's tour ends, Billy will focus on his 20th Bradford Alhambra pantomime, Aladdin, starring as Wishee Washee alongside Christopher Biggins as dame Widow Twankey and Blue singer Simon Webbe as Aladdin. "Simon's playing my brother, which could only happen in pantoland," he says.

Billy, 67, still has a long way to go to match fellow panto doyen Berwick Kaler's 40 years of dame duty in the York Theatre Royal pantomime. "I have nothing but respect for Berwick," he says.

Seriously Dead, Grand Opera House, York, Thursday, 7.30pm. Tickets: £13 upwards on 0844 871 3024 or at atgtickets.com/york.

Charles Hutchinson