STARRING in The Producers has turned Joe Pasquale's voice into something more like Barry White's than its normal squeaky self, the comic jokes as he prepares to bring the touring version to Sunderland's Empire Theatre for a month.

Pasquale agreed to get involved with the musical tour because, like many comics, he was a fan of the 1968 Mel Brooks' film.

"When he said he was going to do it as a musical I thought it was going to be challenge, but it was just fantastic on Broadway and over here, in 2004, in the West End. I thought 'I really want to do that' and the chance came up," explains Pasquale who had been negotiating with the producers of The Producers for two years about taking on the role of naive accountant Leo Bloom.

"I grabbed my chance with both hands and started running with it. I was really worried about the singing until I started dancing, then I thought 'forget the singing, it's the dancing that's worrying me now', but I absolutely love it," he says, revealing that he took three or four months of lessons so that he could learn the song and dance numbers.

Pasquale disagrees with the view that accountant Leo should be a "Mr Bean-like" character. "One of the notes we got from the director is that he isn't a nerd, he's a very clever accountant. I see him as someone who loves numbers and he's trapped in a job that he's not appreciated in and gets sucked into this world of showbusiness. All of a sudden he's dealing with gay directors and gay actors that he has no concept of," he says.

Pasquale has agreed to star in the show until November and adds: "To be honest, I'd do it for however long it was on for. It's just a great feeling to go on stage with this."

Pasquale dislocated his shoulder in pantomime in Birmingham a couple of years ago after being crowned King Of The Jungle in ITV1's I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!. "I've broken my hand, I've broken my toe, I've burnt myself and goodness knows what else, but they are minor flesh wounds. This is quite a physical role for me where I'm rolling about on the floor and falling over, jumping up and down and jumping behind a settee. There's always a danger, that's what makes it interesting."

In between starring on stage he's shuttling between voice-overs in the BBC animated series, Frankenstein's Cat, where he's making 30 episodes, and a cartoon movie with Jim Carrey, Horton Here's A Who, from the Dr Seuss books.

"It's the follow-up to The Grinch Who Stole Christmas and I play the mayor of Whoville. I was familiar with Dr Seuss but not with Horton, who is an elephant by the way," explains the comic who will be seen as Frankenstein's Cat from September.

"I play the cat who is called Nine and it's all about that before Frankenstein made the monster he made a cat who is called Nine, not because he has nine lives but because he's made from nine different cats."

Pasquale's putting together a stage version of BBC classic children's show, Captain Pugwash, which may go out on tour. He loves the ideal of bringing back Cutthroat Jake, Jim the cabin boy and Pugwash's ship The Black Pig on stage but is less tolerant of the sillier legends of crew members with names like Seaman Staines.

"Those names were all false, this is just a family show," he says.