14 Dec Panto star takes the lead for ‘Tell Me A Story’ with the Essex Year of Reading
Essex Year of Reading continues ‘Tell Me A Story’, its new collection of filmed story time sessions helping children, parents and carers discover a lifelong love of reading together.
Available from 15 December, the latest story time session will feature much-loved Mercury Theatre panto dame, Antony Stuart-Hicks.
Antony has been the panto dame at Colchester’s Mercury Theatre for seven years and is currently playing Betty Bon Bon in the theatre’s panto, ‘Beauty and The Beast’, which is running now until 15 January. For ‘Tell Me A Story’, Antony will be reading the story ‘Beauty and The Beast’ by Andrew Lang.
Antony is delighted to support the Essex Year of Reading and is excited to be the next storyteller, he said: “Reading is such a vital skill, it educates, entertains us and enriches our lives in so many ways. I am thrilled to be involved in helping children discover the joy of stories by reading for the Essex Year of Reading. I hope the children will enjoy listening to the story as much as I enjoyed reading it!”
The ‘Tell Me A Story’ sessions, are led by well-known faces, published authors and local heroes. Aimed at children 8-years-old and younger, a new story is launched every two weeks on Essex County Council’s YouTube channel. The stories aim to help families get together and discover new stories, as well as hear old favourites read aloud.
Listening to stories, particularly from a young age, can help children to develop their speech, language and reading skills, as well as expand their vocabulary.
Councillor Tony Ball, Cabinet Member for Education Excellence, Lifelong Learning and Employability, Essex County Council, explains: “Taking time to sit and read with your child is incredibly rewarding and can help to improve children’s reading and language skills. We hope our new ‘Tell me a story’ sessions will inspire families to share books together and enjoy making this part of their daily routine.”
The Essex Year of Reading campaign was created by the Essex Education Taskforce to support children and young people whose education has been affected by the pandemic. It is funded by Essex County Council.
Previous storytellers have included TV presenter and author Dermot O’Leary and the wellbeing author Clare Luther. Future sessions will include readings from children’s authors Michael Rosen and Jeremy Strong, as well as an Essex firefighter and a zookeeper.
The stories will be available on the Essex County Council’s YouTube channel from Thursday 15 December.
