My Top Five Showtunes: Charlie Condou

Charlie Condou found fame playing midwife Marcus Dent in ITV's Coronation Street. His stage credits include Next Fall at Southwark Playhouse last year.

He is soon to star in the UK tour of The Rocky Horror Show, at Manchester, Leeds and Oxford. It has also just been announced that Condou will star in a new UK tour of The Crucible.

We caught up with Charlie and asked him: "If you were stranded on a desert island which five showtunes could you not live without?"

1. "Science Fiction/Double Feature" from The Rocky Horror Show

I was completely obsessed with the film when I was younger and I must have seen it hundreds of times. I know every single word, and I still remember the first time I saw it. Those lips came on the screen singing this song and I just thought it was the coolest thing ever! In our current touring production Kay Murphy is the Usherette and she sings that song at the beginning of the show, and there is just something about it, the minute that music kicks in, you just feel this incredible wave of love from the audience because everyone is so excited, it's just such a brilliant song and gets you geared up for what’s to come.

2. "Summer Nights" from Grease

It was something I remember from being a kid, I’d never been to America and there was something about that song made me think of American high school, and beaches and sort of another world that I wanted to be a part of. It just all seemed so cool, you had the gang of girls, gang of boys it seemed a bit ‘other worldly’ to me; Grease was the epitome of cool, and that song just sums it up for me really.

3. "The Rhythm of Life" from Sweet Charity

I loved the film and I really love this song, sung by Sammy Davis Jr. It’s a scene when they come across this underground cult and he’s the cult leader, and he sings this song about the rhythm of life. Sweet Charity is incredible, the score is just fantastic, the songs are mind blowing, it’s kind of '60s psychedelia – you see this cult, the clothes they are wearing and the whole spectacle of it is incredible. To be honest I could go for any songs in Sweet Charity but I think "The Rhythm of Life" just tips it for me.

4. "You Can’t Stop the Beat" from Hairspray

I like this song simply because I took the kids to see it and they loved it, it's one of songs that we just get up on YouTube quite a lot and just have a big old dance around the living room.

5. "Somewhere" from West Side Story

My grandparents showed me the film when I was younger on holiday, we all watched it together and it's such a wonderful show. This song really reminds me of my grandparents, who are no longer with us. I find something very beautifully sad about it – two people who are in love but can’t be together, they are not allowed to be together, and this song is saying that somewhere there is a place they can be together and everything will be OK. It’s a lovely emotional beautiful song, it always brings a tear to my eye.