THE shoes certainly fit when it comes to song and dance on stage for Melanie Iddon and Chris Ellis-Stanton, who are about to become the title role of Cinderella and Prince Charming for Darlington Civic Theatre's pantomime.

Both have North-East links with Melanie's family originating from Newcastle and Chris's Durham-based cousin a pilot ferrying passengers from Durham Tees Valley Airport to sunshine resorts.

Chris laughs about breaking with tradition as Prince Charming because the role normally goes to a woman and modestly claims that his instant stardom as Billy Crocker in the UK tour of Anything Goes didn't swing a job offer with Darlington panto production company Qdos. "I was among about 100 guys who auditioned and I was originally up for Dick Whittington but they told me 'we didn't see you as Dick we see you more as Prince Charming'. I haven't been practising my thigh-slapping so far but I want my character to have a bit of comedy as well, hopefully with The Krankies," he says. Melanie has appeared in various pantomimes and admits that Cinderella is her favourite role. "I've been working with my Prince Charming today and we have an original duet that's been written for us and there's very much a Disney-like feel about this production," she says.

The 30-year-old trained dancer reveals she switched to acting and singing when pin-up girl Melinda Messenger was unwell through pregnancy during a pantomime run at Milton Keynes. "She did two weeks and I did the other five weeks so my panto career is all thanks to Melinda," Melanie says. Talking about her North-East roots, she comments: "It's so nice to be up North because my granddad was from Wallsend and I'm hoping to take the chance to visit where he used to live. My great-aunt and uncle still live on Tyneside. My granddad moved to Birmingham after the Second World War. He had been in the Navy and he supported his mother at one time and I want to find out how hard he worked to get the family out of quite a poor area of the city." She admits that playing the character Molly in a Midlands' version of Catherine Cookson's The Fifteen Streets really brought her closer to her family roots. Sadly her grandfather died two years ago but never lost his North-East accent which came in useful when Melanie needed some voice coaching for her Cookson role. "And it's so nice coming up here because everyone is calling me hinny and pet which reminds me so much of him. That's why it means so much to me to come and see everything for myself," Melanie says.

She finds touring more arduous than Chris's seven-month stint in Anything Goes, which played Darlington and Newcastle, because she also runs the successful Birmingham Stage School in her home city with her mother.

With her father a Royal Ballet Dancer and both her nan and mother being trained dancers there is a lot of family pride involved in teaching the next generation. Nicest of all is to hear that a recent pupil Stacey Cadman is well-known on TV as BBC's Cave Girl.

Chris got on so well with Anything Goes co-star Michael Starke, who just happens to be starring in Aladdin at York's Grand Opera House this Christmas, that he now calls the ex-Brookside actor Dad.

"We both had barriers to cross because it was my first big show and nobody thought he could do a Cole Porter musical because he'd been on TV for years. But there was no bad publicity surrounding the show and we just grew in confidence," he explains.

The scariest moments were actually when most of the dance numbers had to be changed in two hours because the stage was too tiny at Malvern Theatre. The cast actually thought that was hilarious although a wheelchair scene involving actress Ashley Lilley saw it tip backwards off the stage. "Luckily it caught the edge of the stage and didn't go into the orchestra pit because it snagged a microphone at the front," he says.