Dawn French and Julian Clary to star in Snow White pantomime at the London Palladium

Dawn French will make her pantomime debut this Christmas in the London Palladium's production of Snow White.

The actor and comedian, known for her performances in The Vicar of Dibley and French and Saunders will play the Wicked Queen in the production, the third consecutive pantomime to open at the venue since it returned to the annual tradition in 2016. The Palladium pantomime also won an Olivier Award this month.

French returns to the West End after her 2016 one-woman show 30 Million Minutes, which ran at the Vaudeville Theatre.

Joining French in the pantomime will be Julian Clary as The Man in The Mirror, Paul Zerdin as Muddles, Nigel Havers as The Understudy and Gary Wilmot as Mrs Crumble. Strictly Come Dancing's Vincent Simone and Flavia Cacace-Mistry will also star as The King and The Queen.

Josh Bennett, Simeon Dyer, Craig Garner, Ben Goffe, Jamie John, Blake Lisle and Andrew Martin will also star as The Magnificent Seven. Final casting for the roles of the prince and Snow White will be announced at a later date.

The show, directed by Michael Harrison, has scenery designed by Ian Westbrook, with costumes designed by Hugh Durrant, visual special effects by The Twins FX, lighting by Ben Cracknell and original music by Gary Hind. It will run for five weeks from 8 December to 13 January 2019.