A Celebrity Big Brother winner and a Sheppey singing sensation star in this year’s Sittingbourne pantomime.

Beauty and the Beast will run in December, entertaining audiences, both adults and children, at The Swallows Leisure Centre in Central Avenue.

The cast got together at the centre to chat about their new roles last week.

Alex Reid, Katie Price’s ex-boyfriend, is the perfect casting for evil Gaston, with bounds of ego and pounds of meat – he is sure to delight and antagonise crowds in equal measure.

He is probably best known for winning the celebrity version of Big Brother in 2010.

He also had a long career in mixed martial arts and a role in the TV soap Hollyoaks.

VIDEO: Cast talk about their new roles.

Alex, 42, is starring alongside Islander Robert Brendan, 35, who proposed to his girlfriend Katie Hastings on stage during last year’s pantomime, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

Also taking centrestage this year will be Katie Burke as Belle, Harry Moore as Dame Dolly Dumpling, Joe Lucas as Loopy Louis and Lauren Wootton as Enchantress of the Rose.

Alex said: “This is my fifth panto and my third one as a ‘big boy’. As a little boy I did Cinderella and I was an ugly sister but I can’t remember the other.

“The reason why I love panto is seeing little kids laughing, especially underprivileged kids who don’t have much and I’m really giving something back.

“It’s a great way to travel the country and it’s about an hour-and-a-half from where my mum lives in Aldershot and she’s not been able to see me because the last two were up north.”

All of the cast have previously starred in pantomimes except 24-year-old theatre actress Katie, from Warrington, who said she was really excited for this year.

Beauty and the Beast is being presented by Trio Entertainment, which has organised the Sittingbourne panto for the past seven years.

It runs from Friday, December 15, to Wednesday, December 27.

Prices are from £7.50 for schools to £12.50 at peak times.