Matt’s the One to join the kings and queens of panto at the Palladium

MATT BAKER, The One Show host, has signed up for this year’s London Palladium Pantomime — oh yes he has!

Baker (pictured) will join Paul O’Grady and Julian Clary in Goldilocks And The Three Bears.

Baker will play Joey the Clown, while O’Grady and Clary will take on the parts of the bad ringmaster and the good ringmaster (I can almost write the script now) in the show which will have a circus setting.

Michael Harrison, who directs (and produces with Qdos Entertainment boss Nick Thomas), joked that O’Grady, who wasn’t planning to do any more Palladium pantos, was persuaded to change his mind. ‘He said that I put temptation in his path,’ Harrison said. ‘He loves working with Julian, and they’re real pros who know how to handle an audience. They can just riff off each other.’

Palladium regulars Gary Wilmot, Paul Zerdin and Nigel Havers are also returning. Wilmot will play Dame Betty Barnum, Zerdin will be Silly Billy, while Havers will play Daddy Bear, ‘a part he’s always dreamed of’, Harrison said, with a straight face.

Several real circus acts have also been contracted. They include Denise Garcia-Sorta and Massimiliano Medini as the Skating Medinis; magician Phil Hitchcock; Sascha Williams’ Rola Bola act (he was a hit on Britain’s Got Talent) and Peter Pavlov’s Globe of Death act.

The first show is on December 7, followed by a five-week run.

The Palladium shows have proved phenomenally popular. So far there are already 16,000 names on an advance waiting list for this year’s panto.