There was never much doubt that Lee Mead would win out when the BBC launched its talent search to find a new Joseph to wear the iconic Technicolor Dreamcoat. But Keith Jack ran him a close second and, three years on, he was offered the dream role.

A TARTAN loincloth and the chance to play Les Miserable’s Marius would make Keith Jack a happy man.

But as it is, he’s looking forward to starting the second leg of a national tour, playing the title role in Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

Having moved on from the disappointment of coming second on the BBC’s Any Dream Will Do show in 2007, Keith was enjoying life as a performer appearing in pantomimes and concerts, following a tour as the Narrator in the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical.

Then early last year, producer — and his former TV judge — Bill Kenwright approached Keith at a party and asked if he would rejoin the touring cast of Joseph in the lead part.

“It’s a sense of relief, amazing,” he said of finally playing the character he’d set his heart on as a teenage talent show contestant.

“After not winning and going on tour to play the Narrator, I never thought I would play Joseph. It was on a back-burner.

“But really, it’s probably better now than when I did the TV show.

"I was a lot younger and wonder if I could have played the part the way I can now — it’s come at a better time when I’m a bit more grown-up.”

Scotsman Keith took over the Dreamcoat from fellow Any Dream contestant and touring Joseph Craig Chalmers with a ceremonial passing on of the coat in Croydon.

But he’s determined to bring his own ‘non-stop’ character to the role, as well as an English accent.

“I always felt I wanted to be Joseph, rather than have people say ‘It’s Keith Jack on stage as Joseph’ — which is what would happen if I did it Scottish,” he said, in his Midlothian burr.

“But I can’t sing in Scottish. I was always brought up never to do that. Besides, they’ve not got me a tartan loincloth . . . or a bigger one.”

The tour takes Keith into the summer and, although he’s no work planned for after that, his role of choice would be Marius in Les Miserables.

“I’ve been offered a lot of concerts abroad, in Australia and New Zealand.

“That’s my favourite thing with this industry — I can say what I want to do but you never know what’s going to be offered.”

* Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Preston Charter Theatre, February 15 to 20; Liverpool Empire Theatre, March 29 to April 3; Manchester Opera House, August 16 to 21.