A RADIO soap star is set for a mad dash to be with his family at Christmas.

Baxenden-based Marc Finn, who plays gamekeeper Greg Turner in popular Radio Four soap the Archers, will make the trek from Lincolnshire, where he is appearing in the panto Sleeping Beauty in time to play Father Christmas for his daughters.

The Christmas Eve journey will provide a rare opportunity for Marc and his actress wife Anne-Marie Francis - who starred in one of last year's biggest Brit flicks, Anita and Me - to be together with their two daughters for the festive season.

Marc is currently playing wicked wizard Carabos in Sleeping Beauty, in Grantham, Lincolnshire, although life as an Archer still goes on, with recording sessions in Birmingham slotted in between evening shows and matinees at Grantham.

"I'm doing three episodes while I'm doing panto.

"That means finishing the evening show in Grantham, driving to Birmingham, doing a 9am study the next day, then back to Grantham for 2pm," said Marc.

The couple moved into their home, in Manchester Road, Baxenden, in November last year after living in Birmingham.

But Marc was already commissioned to do panto in the Midlands.

However, despite the distance, he will rush back in time for Christmas Day to play to his most important audience of all - his two daughters, six-year-old Cassie, and Daisy, aged three.

For Marc Christmas day can't come soon enough. He said: "It's a difficult time of year to be away because we have got two daughters. I will be back in time to do my Santa Claus bit when they are in bed, and I will see them on Christmas Day then I go back the day after Boxing Day for a matinee," he said.

"The one thing about being away so much at Christmas is when you do get home to see the family it adds a bit of icing to the cake. We make it special."

In the meantime, Anne-Marie is enjoying a break from running the Performance Academy, at Heathlands, Sandy Lane, Accrington.