From getting married to starring in his first musical, having a baby to straight plays, Jonathan Ansell is pushing the boat out in all directions.

But ask him about his pending solo tour and that’s when his face lights up.

“I love it because you can engage with an audience much better,” he sayd. “For me that’s what’s so exciting as a singer, that you can express everything through your mouth.

“And I get to have a bit of banter, mess about and express myself without being in character which is something I have wanted to do for a long time.”

Reading between the lines, Jonathan is delighted to be back on stage doing his thing. And yet he obviously felt the need to prove himself away from the singing arena.

Because as well as playing the lead role in a national tour of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s hit musical Whistle Down the Wind, where his performance won rave reviews, he also took on the character of Boamer in the stage adaptation of Lark Rise to Candleford.

“It was always my plan to incorporate more and more theatre into my career,” Jonathan explains, “and not just musicals, to give me a bit more credibility. I knew if I did something completely different it would command some respect from the industry.

“Because people seem to think that you win the X Factor and then you earn millions and retire. Yes, it does change your life, but it’s still a job at the end of the day and you have to utilise that and put in the hours to develop and maintain your career, which is difficult. And I think people were really surprised we did so phenomenally well out of G4. We sold a million-and-a-half albums and had four sell-out tours. So to then get a solo deal and have to replicate the success, is a huge pressure which can be really stressful.

“There’s always going to be highs and lows, so it’s great when things work and understandable when things don’t.”

So is it strange watching X Factor again? “It seems like a long time ago,” the 29 year-old says. “But watching it on TV does bring it back and make us realise how fortunate we were back in 2004.

And while Jonathan is the only one of G4 still standing, he’s very defensive of his fellow band members. “I just went to Mike (Christie)’s 30th and he’s a very successful property developer now. Ben (Thapa) has gone down a more classical path and everyone has ended up in fields they wanted to pursue.

“So I may be the biggest profile but the others have chosen to be under the radar. And this is always where I always wanted to be, which is why we disbanded in the end,” he says looking around him. Either way, there’s certainly an old head on this young man’s shoulders, a very pretty one at that, and Jonathan has learned quickly how to play the game. Perhaps the added responsibility of a wife and baby, made the difference?

“Yes it’s all changed,” he says grinning. “It was an unbelievable day, even if we did go a bit overboard.” How? “Well I managed to get Debbie, my wife, to duet with me, which she’d never done before. And she was a real trooper. It was so emotional.”

But with the nuptials done and dusted and a honeymoon in Hong Kong and Bali, Jonathan then went on an eight-month tour of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Whistle Down The Wind. “It was my first musical and the rest of the cast were very supportive of that,” he says. “Debbie was able to travel with me on the Whistle tour, so it was a mad year.”

And now that he’s got six-month-old baby Sienna on the scene: “It’s a whole new adventure,” he smiles.

So tell us about the tour, what can we expect? “We incorporate G4’s greatest moments, my two solo albums, and a few numbers from musical theatre, so it’s a real mix of styles and genres as well as things I’ve been humming along to in between.

Any surprises? “I like to tackle new songs and there are a few new ones, but no originals because unfortunately I’m not a songwriter, although I have tried,” he shrugs, “so instead, I take a beautiful song and put my own stamp on it. In fact,” he grins “I suppose the tour should be called The Best Of So Far with Lots More to Come.”