More Sunderland Empire panto casting

Published: 30 June 2016
Reporter: Peter Lathan

Vicky Entwistle as Carabosse
Amy-Leigh Hickman

Sunderland Empire has announced further casting for its 2016 panto Sleeping Beauty.

Joining the already announced Faye Tozer (Good Fairy), Andrew Agnew (Silly Billy) and Bobby Crush (Nurse Nellie) will be Coronation Street’s Vicky Entwistle and CBBC’s Amy-Leigh Hickman.

Entwistle, best known for playing Janice Battersby in the ITV soap between 1997 until its fiftieth anniversary in 2010, will play the wicked fairy Carabosse. Since leaving the Street she made her West End debut playing Madame Thenardier in Les Miserables and recently she has filmed the role of Francis Whittaker in the fifth series of Father Brown for the BBC.

Hickman, who plays Carmen in the popular CBBC series Tracy Beaker and its spin-off series The Dumping Ground, currently in its third season, and who appeared as Aisha Karim in Casualty and Sarah Boswell in Doctors before landing the role of Linzi Bragg in EastEnders, will play Princess Briar Rose, the beautiful princess condemned by Carabosse's spell to sleep for 100 years.

Sleeping Beauty runs from 9 to 31 December 2016.

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