WHEN Joe McElderry won the X Factor back in 2009, a couple of thoughts struck the world.

The first was what a nice guy he seemed to be. And the second was how will this little Geordie boy survive in a Simon Cowell-controlled world that discards used acts like paper hankies?

On chatting to the singer, it’s evident he’s as nice as he appeared to be on television, always polite and considerate of others.

What he does have though is perhaps more steel, and ambition, than was first imagined.

Right now, he’s in the process of reinventing himself as a musical theatre performer, starring in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat.

Indeed, Joseph is one of those roles that seems to have been invented for acts keen to reinvent themselves.

Over the years it’s turned around the career of legends such as David Cassidy, Donny Osmond and more recently Jason Donovan.

Joe, who had four top twenty albums before being dropped by Simon Cowell’s management group, Syco Entertainment, admits that taking on the role in Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s hit show filled him with trepidation.

“It’s a wonderful thing to be part of this iconic show,” he says of the biblical tale. “And so many performers are remembered for playing this role.

“But it was hard not to feel the pressure. I felt I had to prove myself. When you become known for being a reality show people expect you to fail outside of that.

“But I wanted to make a good job of it.

“Yet, the critics are right in a way. You should get a job because you’re good at it, not just because you’ve been on reality TV.”

He adds, with a wry laugh; “I didn’t want to be known for being the worst Joseph ever.”

There is little chance of that. But there was a pressure in moving from pop to musical theatre.

“That was definitely the case. I haven’t been known as a musical theatre performer.

“People assumed I’d come from that background, but at college it was more a case of studying general performing arts. This has been a huge learning curve for me.”

But he’d once played Danny Zuko in Grease, you throw in, teasingly.

“Yes, but that was at school,” he says, laughing. “And I think I was a very unlikely Danny.”

He does have the rebellious hair for the role, however. “Yes, that’s about it.”

Joe didn’t leap onto the edge of the razor blade that is musical theatre. Instead, he moved towards it gently, working in smaller roles.

Then last year he took on the role of the Pinball Wizard in Tommy, the production running in Blackpool.

“ I wanted to prove I could handle a show like this,” he admits.

The experience gave the singer a great deal of confidence.

“It was a toe in the water experience, but I had so much fun with it and I wanted to do more.

“Meanwhile, I was talking about Joseph, and this made up my mind.”

After X factor, Joe didn’t sit down with his management and plan a career in musical theatre.

“No, the thing is I still have a singing career. I still tour with my solo stuff and for me it’s all about variety. I enjoy the new challenges and being pushed out of my comfort zone.”

That was certainly the case when he appeared on Channel 4 reality show, the Jump, on which he found himself skiing off a 20m high slope - and into possible oblivion.

“The thing is, I’ve skied for a lot of years, on family holidays since I was ten years old,” he says rather surprisingly, given the newspaper reports which suggested he’d grown up with his single-parent mum in in a tiny flat in poverty-ridden Tyneside

“So I can sky pretty well. But having said that, the toughest skiing I had ever done before the show was skiing down to the next mountain restaurant and then down to the hotel.

“And the stuff the Jump had us doing was mental, things I’d never have imagined. This last series revealed how dangerous the sport really is.

“When you ski, you so often see people being helicoptered off mountains and that’s just the way the sport is.

“But I can say it was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had. It was fantastic.”

Was it scarier than standing there on the X Factor stage waiting to find out if he’d won?

“The skiing was competitive, but it was fun. The X Factor represented a career for me. That moment was so intense, and a huge part of my life. I really wanted to win.”

He’s ambitious. Joe McElderry is tougher than you’d expect, but was the X factor scarier than realising the intrusion that comes with fame, the questions about his sexuality, for example?

“It’s a whole job in itself,” he says in serious voice, of handling publicity and his public image.

“In the early stages of touring and doing interviews I realised it was all a life-changing thing.

“I didn’t get any coaching, but thankfully my family and friends guided me through it.”

Were there temptations along the way? Did his Geordie head turn?

“No, I’ve always had a handle on fame. I realise the profile I’ve had has been brilliant and I’ve been able to buy my own house, at my age (he’s just 24) which is a huge achievement.

“But I realise if you play with fame it can become an uncontrollable beast. You’ve got to leave it alone. And I’ve still got the same friends from school and college. I feel very, very lucky.”

If there was any doubt Joe McElderry really is a nice guy he confirms the notion with a final flourish.

“Look, I sing and dance on stage. That’s it. I’m not fighting in the army, I’m not a brain surgeon.

“You can’t take any of it too seriously.”

*Joseph, the King’s Theatre, May 10 – 14.