Lee becomes Joseph in TV victory

Lee Mead has already appeared in a Joseph production
Performer Lee Mead has landed the lead role in West End musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat after winning a BBC One talent show.

Mead came top of a public vote on Any Dream Will Do, beating supermarket worker Keith Jack, 19, of Midlothian.

The victory means he will star in the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical at the Adelphi Theatre from 17 July.

The 25-year-old, from Southend-on-Sea, Essex, has already played the Pharaoh in a touring production of Joseph.

Mead also has experience as an understudy, and appeared as a dancer in Geri Halliwell's video for It's Raining Men.

" He's only been an understudy in a show and has never performed in front of me or really very many people at all - I think it's an amazing achievement"
Andrew Lloyd Webber

Jack, 19, from Dalkeith, is a supermarket shelf-stacker, while third-placed Lewis Bradley, 17, is a performing arts student from Middlesbrough, who got down to the last 15 for the Billy Elliot film.

Some three million votes were cast during the course of the evening.

Mead told presenter Graham Norton: "Support has grown every week and I want to thank everyone so much and those that didn't vote, I'm going to go out there and give you a hell of show."

Lord Lloyd-Webber said he was "very happy" with the outcome.

"Remember, people thought that Lee was the pro. He's only been an understudy in a show and has never performed in front of me or really very many people at all. I think it's an amazing achievement," he said.

Grease victory

Mead is one of three performers who won West End roles on Saturday night.

Earlier in the evening, Danny Bayne and Susan McFadden were crowned the winners of ITV1's Grease Is The Word.

The duo, who were also picked by a public phone vote, will take the lead roles of Danny and Sandy in a Piccadilly Theatre production of Grease starting on 8 August.

McFadden, 24, from Dublin, is the sister of former Westlife singer Brian McFadden.

She told presenter Zoe Ball: "I can't wait. I've waited so long to get here."

Bayne, 19, from Welling, south London, beat Anthony Kavanagh - who had two Top 10 hits in the 1990s under the name Kavana.

Any Dream Will Do and Grease Is The Word have been pitched against each other in a ratings battle.

But the BBC's show has been the winner in the ratings so far, with 4.9 million watching last Saturday's Any Dream Will Do compared with Grease is the Word's 2.9 million viewers.

Booking has already opened for both productions.

RELATED INTERNET LINKS
Any Dream Will Do
Grease is the Word
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