{"id":785214,"date":"2026-09-28T11:22:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T11:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/785214\/"},"modified":"2026-09-28T11:22:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T11:22:09","slug":"gareth-gates-praises-2m-britannia-pier-renovations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/785214\/","title":{"rendered":"Gareth Gates praises \u00a32m Britannia Pier renovations"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n  The singer and actor, who rose to fame on Pop Idol, will star in and produce this year\u2019s Christmas pantomime at Britannia Pier in Great Yarmouth.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Speaking ahead of rehearsals for Beauty and the Beast, which will run from December 8 to 31, Mr Gates said: &#8220;I&#8217;ve been to pier quite a few times over the past year in preparation for the panto.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  &#8220;It&#8217;s a great space. I&#8217;m very excited to bring panto there.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  &#8220;The renovations are incredible.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  &#8220;They&#8217;ve spent a lot of money on it, which is great,&#8221; he added.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  &#8220;It&#8217;s a very central point within the town.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  &#8220;To see that it&#8217;s been done up and that it&#8217;s attracting a lot more custom, a lot more footfall, is really great.&#8221;\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  The show marks the first celebrity-led pantomime at the venue in 30 years.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Mr Gates said: &#8220;To be doing the panto there, after they won pier of the year, is great.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  &#8220;It&#8217;s very exciting to be bringing this to Yarmouth.&#8221;\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  <img   width=\"100%\"\/>Britannia Pier in Great Yarmouth was named Pier of the Year in the UK this year. (Image: Britannia Pier)\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  The owners of Britannia Pier completed a \u00a32m renovation to transform it into a year-round attraction, earning it the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.greatyarmouthmercury.co.uk\/news\/26016581.britannia-pier-great-yarmouth-named-best-country\/?ref=ed_direct\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">National Pier of the Year<\/a> award this year.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  &#8216;Beauty and the Beast&#8217; is a collaboration between G&amp;S Productions and Stargate Entertainment.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.greatyarmouthmercury.co.uk\/news\/26559490.rosanna-roscoe-lands-belle-role-great-yarmouth-panto\/?ref=ed_direct\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Rosanna Roscoe<\/a>, who grew up spending school holidays at her grandmother&#8217;s home in Norwich, will play Belle.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  <img   width=\"100%\"\/>Rosanna Roscoe, who grew up spending school holidays in Norwich, will play Belle in Beauty and the Beast. (Image: Supplied)\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  The official launch took place on Thursday, September 24, at the Priory 1101.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Mr Gates said: &#8220;I&#8217;ve done about 15 pantos over the years, but this is the first one I have produced.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  &#8220;I am putting all the knowledge I have gathered into this show.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  &#8220;I am using all that experience.&#8221;\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  <img   width=\"100%\"\/>Gareth Gates speaking about the Britannia Pier in Great Yarmouth ahead of rehearsals for this year&#8217;s Christmas panto at the venue. (Image: Newsquest)\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  The event was attended by Carl Smith, leader of Great Yarmouth Borough Council, and Sheila Oxtoby, the council\u2019s chief executive.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Tickets start at \u00a317.50 for children and concessions, and \u00a320 for adults.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The singer and actor, who rose to fame on Pop Idol, will star in and produce this year\u2019s&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":785215,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[96,128,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-785214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/785214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=785214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/785214\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/785215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=785214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=785214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=785214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}