Perennial panto favourite Billy Pearce joined soap bad girl Sian Reeves for the launch of this year’s Alhambra pantomime, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

More than 26,000 tickets have already been sold for the show, billed as West Yorkshire’s biggest panto.

Sian Reeves, who played vicar’s stalker Sally Spode in Emmerdale this year, will play the Wicked Queen opposite Bradford’s favourite funnyman Billy Pearce, who plays Muddles.

The show features new special effects, including the Wicked Queen’s enchanted mirror which comes magically to life with the use of 3D.

Sian has already revealed her wicked side to millions of Emmerdale viewers as queen of mean Sally Spode, who turned the lives of mild-mannered vicar Ashley Thomas and his wife Laurel upside down in a gripping storyline that ended with Sally being sectioned after drugging Ashley and attacking Laurel.

Sian is also a familiar face on TV dramas such as Cutting It, City Lights and Hope Springs. She won BBC1’s singing talent show Just the Two of Us alongside opera star Russell Watson.

Produced by Qdos Entertainment, the world’s largest pantomime producer, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is produced by the same team behind the 2009/10 panto, Jack and the Beanstalk.

This will be the 12th Alhambra panto for Billy. Last year he starred as Jack in Jack and the Beanstalk, which made more than £1 million and broke box office records for takings at the theatre.

Billy has suffered several injuries, including a broken collar bone, in pantos over the years but is looking forward to treading the boards again this Christmas.

“Being in Bradford is like coming home, I’m always touched by how lovely the audiences are to me,” he said. “Panto is great fun but hard work, and I always say to the cast ‘go and look into the audience and see those children arriving in their seats with their mums, dads and grandparents’.

“That’s why we do this – because you can’t beat seeing their faces light up.”

Executive Producer Jon Conway, said: “Each year we give Bradford pantomime audiences a show full of surprises and we always add something new to the production.

“This year’s audience at Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs can enjoy an unmissable pantomime as the cast of the show are joined on stage by brand new, amazing 3D effects as the Wicked Queen’s enchanted mirror comes magically to life through 3D wizardry.”

Adam Renton, General Manager Bradford Theatres, said: ““We have a reputation for staging spectacular pantomimes and this year will be no different. “We were the first theatre in the UK to use 3D digital technology in pantomime, that has now transferred to Bejing. We continue to be at the cutting edge of live entertainment. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs will feature comedy in abundance, stunning sets, glittering costumes and dazzling effects.”

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs runs at the Alhambra from Saturday, December 18, to Sunday, February 6.

Tickets are available on (01274) 432000 or online at bradford-theatres.co.uk