A promotional mock up of how Peter will look as Stead

The editor of a North East daily newspaper is to appear as one of his most illustrious predecessors in a musical to mark 100 years since the Titanic sank.

Peter Barron, editor of the Northern Echo, will play William Thomas Stead, who died on the supposedly unsinkable vessel after it struck an iceberg on its maiden voyage in 1912.

Stead, who is credited by Peter with laying the foundations of the Echo as a campaigning newspaper, had been preparing to cross the Atlantic on a crusade for social justice.

Now Peter will take on the role of playing him at Darlington Operatic Society’s award-winning Titanic: The Musical, at the town’s Civic Theatre in April.

Written in 1997, the musical tells of the hopes and dreams of people who boarded the Titanic.

Said Peter: “I can’t sing, can’t act and can’t dance, but I am delighted to have been asked to be involved.

“WT Stead was a great man, who laid the foundations for The Northern Echo as a campaigning newspaper, and it is a privilege to remember him in this way.”

“Darlington Operatic Society has a tremendous track record and it will be an honour to be part of the cast.”

Peter’s previous stage experience is limited to playing the innkeeper’s son in a nativity play and appearing as a dame in a Northern Echo office pantomime.

Added Peter: “Once the costume arrives, it is my intention to spend a day in character, editing The Northern Echo as William Stead.”

His face has even been morphed with WT Stead’s for a promotional picture, captioned ‘Stead ringer’ in the paper.

Darlington Operatic Society spokesman Julian Cound said: “We are thrilled that Peter will be a part of this special production paying his own tribute to WT Stead.”

• The Chartered Institute of Journalists is to honour Stead by laying a wreath at his memorial on the Victoria Embankment in London on April 15.

After his death on the Titanic, the then Institute of Journalists launched an appeal to raise funds for the memorial. So much was raised that two memorials were erected, one opposite Temple Tube station and the other in Central Park, New York.