'TIS the season to be jolly, according to singing sensation and Strictly Come Dancing contender Aled Jones, who is happy to be coming to Preston with his Christmas concert. He spoke to JENNY SCOTT...

NOT many people would have thought Aled Jones could become a bigger sex symbol than clean-cut athlete Roger Black.

But then not many people would have banked on Aled's light-footed foxtrots and energetic jives proving so successful on sequin-strewn Saturday night show Strictly Come Dancing.

Aled's new-found female fanbase will be disappointed to learn, however, that the former choirboy is happily married - to a Lancashire lass.

His wife Claire, a former air hostess, is from Poulton-le-Fylde and Aled said: "Lancashire is where I met my wife, so it's very special to me. I used to live in Lytham-St-Annes, although I'm based down in London now."

Now Aled, 33, is returning to his beloved county - in a Christmas concert at Preston Guild Hall.

His preparation for the bleak midwinter began a little earlier than everyone else's, though - in June, to be precise - when he started recording his new CD entitled The Christmas Album.

"I love this kind of music, but my last Christmas album was 15 years ago," he said. "So I thought it was about time I recorded another.

"It doesn't include Walking In The Air, but it does include a whole mixture of other festive pieces."

And these pieces - including Away In A Manger and O Little Town Of Bethlehem, as well as John Rutter's Candlelight Carol - will form the basis for his touring concerts.

"I'm really looking forward to starting the tour," he said. "I think my voice is sounding pretty good at the moment. It's getting higher, so I'm able to be much more expressive."

Indeed, concert goers will be able to compare and contrast Aled's adult voice with the astonishing soprano that made him famous as a boy when he performs a live version of Walking In The Air - the track from the Raymond Briggs cartoon The Snowman that turned schoolboy Aled into an international star.

"I'm duetting with my younger self for the first time on stage," he said.

Then, in the second half, Aled will conduct a question and answer session with the audience.

"A lot of the questions are a bit irreverent," he said. "It's good fun and it keeps things fresh."

Since his schoolboy days, which included highlights like singing for the Queen and at Bob Geldof and Paula Yates' wedding, Aled has moved more into presenting.

He proved a hit with audiences in Songs Of Praise and Classic FM, but it was a part as Joseph in the Andrew Lloyd-Webber musical that revived his adult career.

"Up to then I was floundering," he said. "Everything I had done as a kid was gone and it took a while for my adult voice to mature properly."

There's no doubt, though, that the adult Aled is a well-established figure - both in the music world and now, in the world of ballroom dancing.

Does he plan to quick step into the final and reinvent himself as a dancer?

"I've always taken life as it comes," he laughed, "So I don't know what will happen. But I feel very lucky!"

Catch Aled Jones at Preston Guild Hall on Tuesday, December 21. For tickets call (01772) 258858.