TV celebrity, former X-Factor runner up and Dancing On Ice star Ray Quinn is playing the role once made famous by Cliff Richard, in the stage version of Summer Holiday.

Based on the iconic 1960’s film of the same name, which starred Cliff and The Shadows, Summer Holiday will include all of the number one hits from the movie, plus some additional Cliff Richard classics.

Summer Holiday tells the story of Don and his fellow London Transport mechanics as they journey together in a red double-decker bus through Paris, the Alps, Italy and Greece. Along the way they pick up a girl singing group and a young American pop star who is on the run from her domineering mother!

This hit - filled musical features many of 1960’s biggest songs including In the Country, Summer Holiday, Travellin’ Light, Bachelor Boy, Move It, Living Doll, The Young Ones and On the Beach.

The famous red Summer Holiday double-decker bus will be parking up at the Cliffs Pavilion from Thursday August 23 – Monday August 27.

Ray shot to fame as the runner-up in ITV1’s The X Factor in 2006. This spurned a career in both music and of late musicals, with his debut album Doing it My Way entering the charts at Number 1, and quickly gaining platinum status.

Ray - who will be playing Don - is perhaps best known of late for ‘doing the double’ on ITV1’s hugely successful show Dancing on Ice, winning for the first time in 2009, and then again on Dancing on Ice: Champion of Champions in 2014.

Ray’s theatre credits include Danny Zuko in Grease (West End), Dirty Dancing (West End), Legally Blonde (UK Tour) and most recently, The Wedding Singer (UK Tour).

The Cliffs Pavilion is in Station Road, Southend.

Tickets are available via southendtheatres.org.uk