In this ITV special, Michael will be interviewed by Jennifer as they drive around Wales. Read more:
Jennifer Saunders is to present a talkshow based in a 1960s E-Type Jaguar for ITV.
So TV and Illuminated Manuscript are to produce one-off special Jennifer Saunders’ Memory Lane, in which the Absolutely Fabulous star will conduct an interview with Michael Sheen as she drives him around locations from his youth in Wales.
Expected to air in a 9pm slot later this year, the biographical road-trip will feature revelations and surprises from Sheen’s past as he reminisces about growing up in and around Port Talbot.
So TV’s Graham Stuart and Illuminated Manuscript’s Andrew Higgie have jointly developed the show and will exec produce, with series producer Andy Rowe.
Stuart, who is also responsible for The Graham Norton Show, said he has long considered a car to be a natural environment to stage a talk-show.
“They are a place where people have the most intimate conversations and we wanted to capture that on-screen,” he said. “Asking people to tell you about a journey that means something to their lives and then actually driving it surrounds them with images which trigger their memory and it becomes very powerful indeed.”
During the show, Sheen will be driven across the Brecon Beacons on a “dream journey” he once took with his parents, resulting in a mixture of emotion and humour.
So TV has tied with Top Gear supplier Extreme to rig the Jaguar with cameras and will support the interior footage with “spectacular” shots of the scenery, captured by drone.
It marks an opportunity for Saunders to front a primetime show on ITV having recently appeared as a team captain on Sky 1 panel show There’s Something About Movies and in Harlan Coben’s Netflix series The Stranger.
Stuart said she is a great fit for the show. “Jennifer is a highly intelligent woman who was very comfortable with Michael and loved the car,” he said. “Memory Lane combined two of her favourite things: driving and talking.”
Memory Lane was ordered by head of entertainment Katie Rawcliffe and commissioning editor of entertainment Joe Mace.
The commission is the second of the week to come from Rawcliffe’s department, coming a day after she greenlit a Bobby Ball tribute show.