The award-winning Broadway and West End musical The King and I is kicking off its new touring production in Kent.

The show, which stars Call the Midwife’s Helen George, will begin its national tour with five nights at the Marlowe Theatre in Canterbury from Saturday, February 4.

You can book tickets to the Canterbury dates online here.

The Rodgers and Hammerstein classic will then be at the Orchard Theatre in Dartford from Tuesday, April 4 to Saturday, April 8. Book online here.

Helen, who is best known for playing Trixie Franklin in the BBC drama, will star as Anna Leonowens in the musical.

“Anna is such a strong, passionate and determined character, and I’m going to relish bringing her to life every night,” says the 38-year-old actor. “Theatre is my first love, and I am so excited to be returning to the stage for this beautiful, majestic production of the King and I.”

Helen trained at the Royal Academy of Music and the Birmingham School of Acting before joining the cast of Call the Midwife, which is partially filmed at the Historic Dockyard Chatham, in 2012.

The TV star briefly swapped the hospital ward for the dancefloor in 2015 as she competed in the thirteenth series of Strictly Come Dancing. She finished in sixth place with her partner Aljaž Škorjanec.

Set in 1860s Bangkok, the musical follows an unconventional relationship between the King of Siam and Anna, a British schoolteacher who has been brought to the kingdom to teach the King’s wives and children.

Helen will be joined on stage by Darren Lee, who has appeared in films such as Hackers with Angelina Jolie, Sisters with Tina Fey and Chicago with Catherine Zeta-Jones, as the King of Siam.

The King and I, based on Margaret Landon’s 1944 novel Anna and the King of Siam, first made its Broadway debut in 1951 and has since toured the world.

It was also adapted into an Oscar-winning film in 1956, starring Deborah Kerr and Yul Brynner.