FORMER Coronation Street star Deborah McAndrew is swapping the fashions of Mike Baldwin's factory for a pair of tights and a spotted hanky as she takes the title role in Dick Whittington at the Grand Theatre next week (Dec 15).

And it will be a thigh-slapping Blackpool debut for the lady who downed pints in the Rovers Return with Curly Watts as designer Angie Freeman and then went on to tread the boards around the country with Northern Broadsides Theatre Company.

Debbie told the Citizen: "I've just finished a tour of King Lear in the role of Goneril which featured Nigel Hawthorne as the lead and Josh Moran who is actually from St Annes.

"I really got on great with him.

"And when the pantomime finishes I will then return to Northern Broadsides with my husband Conrad to take the leads of Beatrice and Benedict in a tour of Much Ado About Nothing.

"I love to do a bit of everything - you know, TV work, radio plays and theatre.

"But I've never performed in Blackpool before so I'm really looking forward to it and the Grand is a fantastic theatre.

"Plus, I love to do pantomime every year and this is a terrific family show with beautiful costumes and humour on every level, so there is fun for the adults too." Viewers of Songs Of Praise can also catch Debbie presenting an Advent special of the popular religious programme this Sunday (Dec 12)from West Yorkshire.

And what about the possibility of a return to Coronation Street? Debbie will only say: "I'm booked up until May anyway with other commitments but the character of Angie has been left open so you never know."

Dick Whittington, written, directed and also featuring The Wave's Tom Bright as the dame, opens at the Grand Theatre on December 15 until January 8 with tickets from £6 available by calling the box office on (01253) 290190.

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