SPIKE Grimsey admits it has been a long haul from the West Cliff to the West End.

But the former Clacton schoolboy is now living his dream in the long-running West End hit musical Les Miserables and is about to take a leading role as the outrageous innkeeper Thenardier.

Spike, 32, who lives in Colchester, is on stage at the Queens Theatre up to eight times a week.

“It’s just a dream come true” he says. “Les Mis is the only show I have ever really wanted to do and then to get to play Thenardier which is a fantastic role, it’s just brilliant. It has been a long haul to get there and it is just fantastic now.”

Spike was in Les Mis two years ago and now covers 14 parts.

He is halfway through his 12-month contract and from February 21 to 26 and in April will be stepping into the comical and popular role of the innkeeper.

Spike is managing to find time to both perform in the West End and carry on at Colchester Institute, where he is a part-time lecturer on the performing arts degree course.

He says it’s another role he relishes, as the course is going from strength to strength and has grown from just a few students each year to about 30.

His advice for young wannabees is: “You have to be thick skinned and accept the rejections. For every ten auditions you might just get a sniff of a recall. It makes you tougher. Once you are on the ladder, you are on the circuit”

Spike, who attended Clacton’s Colbayns High School, is well on the ladder now.

He has come a long way from Clacton Operatics Society and his appearances at the town’s West Cliff Theatre as a boy, when he lived with his family in Friars Close, in the town.

He did have song and dance in his blood.

His uncle, Ernie Grimsey, was a favourite as a Clacton pantomime Dame.

His aunt, Jacqueline Annis, runs her own dance school in Clacton and taught Spike his first steps.

Now Spike is relishing the thought of continuing in Les Mis and whatever comes next.

“I don’t turn anything down,” he says. “I’m always open to whatever comes my way.”