As she settles into her new home with her fiance and prepares to undertake her first starring stage role back in her home town, teenage pop idol Zoe Birkett tells David Roberts her life couldn't be any better.

IT'S hard to gauge what appeals most to Zoe Birkett - her first starring stage role or the fact that it will give her a chance to be back amongst family and friends in Darlington.

Zoe first shot to fame four years ago at the age of 16, when she was the final female contestant on the first series of Pop Idol. And this winter, the 19-year-old will be playing the lead role of Belle in the production of Beauty and the Beast at Darlington Civic Theatre.

Despite admitting she has yet to read the script or ever been in a pantomime, she is clearly relishing the opportunity. "I really can't wait, I'm really excited about it," she says. "A friend told me I would have such a laugh doing it and if you get the opportunity to be a lead role, you take it, you can't turn it down. A lot of actors doing these things end up having to go back to digs, but I'll get to go home at the end of the day. I'll be back home for Christmas."

Although she's no stranger to performing. Zoe admits to having slight nerves about acting live on stage. However, help is at hand from her co-stars, pantomime veterans the Grumbleweeds. "They said if I had got any questions then not to hesitate to ask," she says.

"I'm still only 19 and it will be a great experience and I'll learn a lot from it, my head's like a sponge. I had my first acting debut in a BBC children's drama recently and that was in front of a camera where you can have as many takes as you like. This will give me an opportunity to put the skills I learned in stage school into practice."

Zoe isn't daunted by the fact that she'll have two shows a day. "I love hard work, that's just the sort of person I am, I love getting my teeth into something," she says.

Since first appearing in Pop Idol, Zoe has not been able to visit Darlington as much as she would like to, and the time she will be in Beauty and the Beast will be the longest she has spent back in the North-East since appearing on the show.

"It'll be just like old times, my mum will be wanting to know where I'm going and what time I'll be back," she laughs. "It's going to make it so much more special that these are people from my home town I'm performing in front of.

"When my friends first found out I was going to be in the pantomime they were ringing me saying they'd got tickets for five nights - I couldn't believe it, it's not until December."

Another person, who will be coming to watch the show is her fianc, Mark Rhodes, a finalist on the second series of Pop Idol. The couple got engaged in August last year, after a four month romance and have just moved into their new "love nest" in Luton.

Mark, who formed one half of the duo Sam and Mark with fellow Pop Idol contestant, Sam Nixon, has also worked as a presenter on Saturday morning television.

While Zoe says both she and Mark are concentrating on their respective careers, they hope to tie the knot sometime in the next two years. "Mark's brilliant and we both couldn't be happier, I've never met anybody so great.

"All my family and friends love him," she says. "We're both quite focused, he's doing his presenting and it's important for me to do my work at the moment, but hopefully sometime in the next couple of years we'll be getting married.

"I know in this part, I'm going to have to wear ball dresses and I keep imagining that it might be like my wedding dress."

Zoe's part in Beauty and the Beast has not meant putting her singing career on hold. Her debut single, Treat Me Like a Lady, went to number 12 in the charts, and she is still in the studio recording tracks for her album.

"Singing is my main love and I'm finishing my album off, but hopefully it should be on its way soon," she says. "I'm singing with an 18-piece band and these things take a lot of time."

l Beauty and the Beast runs from Friday, December 9 until Sunday, January 22. To book tickets call the box office on (01325) 486555.