Fantasmagorical musical flies into Milton Keynes

Watch out for the flying car swooping into Milton Keynes Theatre when the fantasmagorical musical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang comes to the venue.
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One of the world’s favourite musicals, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang visits from Wednesday May 4 to Saturday May 14 and will have audiences of all ages flying high with its mixture of madness, intrigue and exuberance.

Can the loveable but whacky inventor, Potts, along with his two children and the gorgeous Truly Scrumptious outwit the bombastic Baron Bomburst who has decreed that all children be banished from his kingdom? What happens when the children are caught and imprisoned with other youngsters by the evil Childcatcher? Will it all end happily-ever-after?

Caractacus Potts will be played Casualty and Joseph star Lee Mead while Michelle Collins swap soap land for a different kind of fantasy world as Baroness Bomburst.

Another Eastenders star Shaun Williamson plays Lord Scrumptious and Baron Bomburst.

Lee Mead said: “I was very lucky in that my agent phoned one day and said would I like to appear as Charactacus Potts.

“It took me five seconds to say yes. It’s probably the quickest I ever said yes to anything.

“It was a film I saw, like many other people, when I was very young and fell in love with it. I’ll be doing five months so it is nice that it is not a long tour.”

He also has a favourite song for the show which he is looking forward to performing.

Lee added: “I get to sing Hushabye Mountain which is the most beautiful song and Me Ol’ Bamboo which is a great song.

“I am so excited to be doing it and I finish the stint in Birmingham where I have just finished doing pantomime.”

Lee can scarcely believes the time that has passed since his big break on the programme to find a new Joseph.

He said: “It was strange, when I was up in Birmingham, a woman approached me and she said it was 10 years since the Joseph show and I can not believe how the time flies.

“It was the second show after Maria and the first episode for that had higher ratings for the final of the previous series. There was something like 10 million people watching the show on for 12 weeks and became instantly recogniseable.

“I think I was fortunate that I was 26 when I did it and while there were some of the other guys who were 17/18, I was a bit older and felt a little more experienced and ready to handle the pressures of it. Even though I was fairly new to the business.

“But I was very lucky because I was essentially the winner of a talent competition and not all of the winners have had the same level of success.”

Tickets are on sale now at Milton Keynes Theatre Box office 0844 871 7652 or visit www.atgtickets.com/miltonkeynes.

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