I was with a friend today and she had the newest Warner Brochure. Lee is supposed to be appearing at Littlecote House on 11th April 2014.I was so surprised at the news and hope that someone will go on the Warner's site to check that I have given the correct information.

If you go onto the Warners website you will see Lee is mentioned as appearing, but no date as yet. My OH and I have had some pleasant weekends at Warner's Hotels. I met Daniel Boys and Jenna Lee James(who played the narrator in Joseph)at one and they were both lovely and very chatty. Russell Watson is also advertised as appearing so it seems both P&O and Warners have realised that ramping up the level of their guest stars will bring in the punters. It seems that Lee is taking on a lot more work now, and I cannot blame him in the circumstances.

Warner's are also advertising Lesley Garret, The Osmonds, Jason Donovon and Elaine Paige for next year, so he is in good company.

It's on the Warner's website here, but since it hasn't been confirmed by Lee's official website or OLM Facebook page, it might turn out to be another Cardiff situation.

http://www.warnerleisurehotels.co.uk/breaks/weekend-breaks/star-breaks/2014.aspx

Good find!

Littlecote House looks like a nice spot for a relaxing break but pricey if you have book a 3-night break to see Lee!

Oh dear. It would cost only a fraction more to go on the cruise!

i should absolutely love to go to this. Haven't been to Warners for years. Took my mother and went with friends several years ago and really enjoyed it.

We usually have a long weekend at one of the Warner hotels every spring, so we phoned them on Friday evening.

They confirmed Lee will definitely be appearing on 11th April so we booked for the weekend, getting the last two rooms on the ground floor. Apparently he has proved very popular and booking for that particular date is far more hectic than they expected. As at last Friday Littlecote was over 50% full, and filling up very fast.

It is pricey, and works out about £300.00 pp for the long weekend (Friday to Monday), but you do get a lovely relaxing break in an amazing setting, plus a fantastic evening's entertainment on the Friday evening of course.

This Warner's venue is more difficult to reach from the Midlands and I don't drive long distances myself - too nervous. When I looked at the booking page very few rooms were left.Fantastic that he is already generating a large audience - we all know that he pulls in the punters wherever he goes.

Lee's FB page has now confirmed that this concert is happening.

Sigh of relief.

Only a lottery win could make this happen for me now. No single rooms available, and not within reasonable walking/taxi distance of a station. Which has made me think - this is a little cheeky of me as I'm rubbish at organising anything - if a similar event happens in future maybe a group trip with private transport could be organised? Oh well an old girl can dream can't she?

If he has been as popular as Warner's claims then no doubt they'll book him again and maybe a few fans could get together for a joint visit. It is probably a nice earner for a one night spot and because of all that's happened in his private life Lee will probably want to work even harder now. He has often said he turned down lots of offers so he could stay at home and look after Betsy while Denise worked, so maybe that will change now. After all Betsy is at nursery, and will be at school in a couple of years, which will give him even more opportunities to further his own career.

Not so sure if he'll go back to LA. If he got work on a TV series there he could be tied up in the States for at least 9 month, taking into account the usual network schedule of 20/24 episodes. Don't think he would want to leave Betsy for that long. It's not as if he could move her out there with him now circumstances have changed. Whatever, I wish him so may good things in his future career.

Well I would go but my OH will not go with me as he complained that I'll spend my whole time looking for or talking about Lee...oops

Jazzy that is exactly how I would spend my time

Deanna there are always planes and long weekends. If by any good fortune he did get a part in a tv show in the US he would have time off. The judges from Strictly are here on Dancing With the Stars and they go back and forth weekly.

Warners is a great one off gig.

Regular cast have already been set for the network shows here (which started shooting earlier this summer), so if he did get anything in the US, it's likely to be either a one-off guest appearance, a short multi-episode arc or a recurring role. Those could take anywhere from 7-10 shoot days to a few weeks at a time. Sitcoms are the shortest shoot schedules -- generally Monday to Thursday for table read/blocking/rehearsals/location shoots and Friday to shoot on set. 1 hour dramas are more unpredictable -- usually about 10 shoot days and sometimes very long day/night shoots with 2nd or 3rd units going on at the same time. And depending on the production, if scripts & pre-production are in place, shows can accommodate actors' busy schedules by shooting out of sequence.

Exactly. Anything can be done. Nothing can exclude him from going to LA except himself.

Thanks for setting me straight and there are always movies. TV movies have quite short shooting schedules don't they?

It depends on the kind of movie and the role involved, but those generally take at least a month to shoot. Movies for theatrical release usually have bigger budgets and more lenient work days, but are more complicated on the technical side (special effects, fight sequences, etc.) as well. In either case, if it's a small role, it might only involve a few days of shooting. It really varies widely.

this event is only a week away
so who has booked?
I know that this is a difficult one for most of us having to juggle work & family commitments but I hope that lee will see a few familiar faces.
so come on who is lucky enough to be going?

My hubby and I are going next weekend. Really looking forward to it; having an enjoyably and relaxing time, plus to top it all an evening with Lee. It has been a hectic few weeks as my son got married two days ago. We had to arrange it as his new wife is from LA and her parents were unable to attend sadly. All went well fortunately. Now we can wind down relax, and think of ourselves.

It's tomorrow!!

Mum and I are going on a mini-break... this seemed as good a place as any!

Hoping to make use of the facilities - it says it has tennis, archery and all sorts

then Mr Mead on saturday evening, it's about as perfect as it gets

Hope those going to Warners at the weekend have a happy and relaxing break. Don't forget to tell us all about it when you get back.

Apparently Lee is doing a Q&A session at 8.30 this evening, which should be interesting! He will be performing late, as they have other entertainment on first, plus a break after his Q&A. All info gleaned from FB!

A couple of snippets from the Q&A:

He had the lead for the new Miss Saigon but chose Casualty.

Next album is hopefully going to be MGM classics.

Lord Arthur was going into the WestEnd but he went into Wicked.

He talked about first day on Casualty and how nervous he was.

And a couple of not-so-good photos - all the good seats were taken by VIP's:

Wow, that's interesting stuff about Miss Saigon!

Thanks for the photos :)

Thank you so much for those snippets. Thats amazing info about his past roles! Somebody must have asked some good questions.
Any news about Utopia?

If this is right, have to say I am heartbroken re Miss Saigon, and stuff Casualty! I would have bankrupted myself to have seen him in that, over and over and over again. (just my personal view, of course)



5 minutes later, have had a re-think - he would have had to cut his curls. Oh well, maybe it wasn't the right role for him .........

Me too A/Liz. Casualty is little consolation.

A Liz, I'll join you in that. I'm gutted too. and nobody can tell me otherwise because its how I feel personally.
Im booked in to see it on May 6th.

I guess it shows how much he wanted to do TV work. Its possible he could go back into MS later, when Casualty ends.

Yes, his ambition was to get into TV or film, which he has done.

I very much doubt he'd do MS now.

Lee was offered Chris in Miss Saigon? Blimey! That would explain why they seemed to be taking so long over casting Chris - they had their Chris but he turned it down so they had to resume their search!

Very sad about Miss Saigon. It would have been worth saving to go and see him in that. Nice photos, blurry or not.

I would have loved to have seen Lee in Miss Saigon, I will always prefer to see him live on stage especially in the West End. But at the moment his dream is to do TV/film. It's no consolation to know how amazing he would have been in the role either. Oh well ...

Aww Ladies, try not to be too sad Lee's not in Miss Saigon. I too would have loved to see him as Chris, but speaking with my head now rather than my heart, we've all known for a long time Lee has been trying to get into TV/Films and being offered a role in Casualty (a character written around him too) must have seemed to him too good an offer to miss.(Remember how excited he was that Friday evening at The Pheasantry when he'd obviously just been told he had the Casualty role, he was on it was lovely to see). Also, whilst I'm sure Miss Saigon will be successful (it has huge advance ticket sales) there is no guarantee it will have a long run, look at the number of recent West End shows which have closed early for whatever reason. Particularly surprising I think was From Here to Eternity, which posted closing notices within 2/3 months of it opening when most people were expecting it to have a much longer run than the 6 months it had. So for the time being we'll have to be content with watching him on the TV on a Saturday and then, those of us lucky enough, can go and see him perform live at his many concerts over the coming year.

According to Ro over on Lovelees, what Lee actually said was that he auditioned for MS and it looked as if he'd got the role, but there was no confirmation at that point...then he was offered Casualty. Now that makes a lot more sense than Lee actually turning down MS!

Given that half the WE had auditioned for MS (including Daniel Boys*), it's impressive that Lee got to the final stages (and might well have got it had he not taken Casualty)!

*Daniel Boys auditioned, but was told he was too old. Mind you, given that they were banging on about looking for a 'young' Chris (the casting info mentioned an age range of 18-23), so was Lee!

What was the set-list? Anything diffeent?

Don't have the complete set list yet, but he did bring back Collide.

He said the two Michaels (i.e. Ball and Buble) had done the regular albums and done them well. So he's looking for something different - hence the MGM choices.

Oh, and he took his jacket off quite early on, there was a wolf whistle or two and he said 'don't wolf whistle it ain't all that!'

Silly man. Of course it is all that - and much more!!

And however he said it, he did turn down MS for Casualty.

There is a lovely write up of the evening with photos and a set list on the L M Timeline :)

Ro did such a good report on the show, so I am just including some extra little snippets. I bumped into Ro on early Saturday afternoon in the old (somewhat creepy) house, and she told me Lee had arrived. Just after that we went to reception and the lady on duty was very excited as she had met Lee and got his autograph. She said how lovely,down to earth and friendly he was, unlike some of the other stars they have had performing. She chatted to his mum as well who was apparently looking after Betsy. Quite understandably the little one was kept out of sight of the guests.
All the young performers, who do the regular Littlecote shows were very excited about Lee coming as he had arranged to meet them all. The next day they went on about how lovely and friendly he was to them all. He kissed all the girls, although a couple jokingly said they were disappointed they only got a kiss on the cheek. There was an air of excitement among the bar staff as well. One asked a question in the Q and A, and I saw a couple of them sneaking off for autographs.
On Sunday a lot of the guest were chatting about Lee's performance, even those who had not specifically booked to see him, but visited on a regular basis. They were all impressed and one lady said she got more dancing from Lee than they had when they'd seen James and Ola Jordan, who only performed 3 short dances.Also everyone liked the fact he did a Q and A as well. My question was about Utopia but it wasn't asked.
Before he sang Some Enchanted Evening he also said something about being up for a part I think in South Pacific. Cannot recall anything else at present but if I do I will note it down.

Thanks for the 'snippets' Deanna!

The whole weekend was relaxing & lovely.
The regular entertainment staff were very happy that they were told that they should treat Saturday night like a "red carpet event" & dress appropriately (not in uniform) This apparently was the very first time that this has happened
The barmaid that had her question asked was very smitten with Lee. At the end of the night she proudly showed me her pic with him.
He was delightful & charming & every member of staff that met him was impressed

Earlier in the day we were going out to explore the grounds & just as I opened the front door I saw Lee who had just got out of a taxi
I stood rigid for a few seconds. What should I do? turn back or go on
well Lee saw us & smiled so I just carried on & said "hello Mr Mead" then walked across the driveway with butterflies in my tummy

Here's a few more pics

Wow Joan, saving the best shot till last are we....lol Loving the rear view . Thanks everyone for sharing x

I must admit the last picture caught my eye for some reason, too! Nothing to do with the ROTY of course!

Thank you, ladies, for your reports and photos. I love the little extra snippets, they bring it all alive for those of us who couldn't be there.

Thanks Deanna and Joan for telling us about the weekend, it's sounds lovely and pleased to hear Lee went down a storm . Loved the bit where the staff were told to treat it like a 'red carpet event' . Thanks also for the lovely photos Joan.

Thanks for all the snippets, ladies!

Thank you Deanna and Joan for the extra bits of info. So good to hear that it all went well and that both staff and guests were impressed.