X Factor's Diana Vickers to star in West End

X Factor's Diana Vickers to star in West End
X Factor's Diana Vickers to star in West End (Image credit: PA Wire/Press Association Images)

The X Factor star Diana Vickers is to star in a new West End production of the musical The Rise And Fall Of Little Voice. The Daily Mirror reports producer Nica Burns describing Diana as 'the perfect Little Voice'. She said: "With this wonderful play, you have to find your Little Voice first. To find someone of the right age - just 18 - who is as special as Diana Vickers is a gift. "Having found our perfect Little Voice, I was delighted that the outstanding actress Lesley Sharp agreed to play her mother Mari and the charismatic actor Marc Warren, Ray Say. The musical tells the story of a shy girl called Little Voice growing up in the north of England with her overbearing mother. Little Voice listens to her dead father's records and perfects flawless impersonations of great singers, including Shirley Bassey, Edith Piaf and Judy Garland. The original 1992 production was nominated for six Olivier Awards, and a film was made of the show in 1998, starring Jane Horrocks and Michael Caine.

Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 


An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.