The BBC Two festive production starring Lily James and Oliver Chris as the title characters is set to premiere on December 19. More below:
“Oh no it isn’t”, “Oh, yes, it is.” The world’s funniest and most star-studded Comic Relief pantomime is back, as writers Ben Crocker, Dawson Bros and Richard Curtis turn Beauty And The Beast into a festive panto delight, all to raise money for some very good causes.
Returning to tell this years’ tale will be narrator Guz Khan as Bonzo. He will gleefully retell the beloved fairy-tale of an unlikely romance between a cursed beast and his warm-hearted prisoner as part of this new BBC Christmas tradition.
Lily James (The Pursuit of Love, Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again!, Downton Abbey) will portray Beauty alongside Oliver Chris as The Beast (Trying, Motherland).
They will be joined by Kiell Smith-Bynoe (Ghosts, Stath Lets Flats) as Beauty’s brother Jacques, Sian Gibson (Murder, They Hope, Car Share) who plays their mother, Ma, and Susan Wokoma (Enola Holmes, Chewing Gum) stars as Amelie.
Further cast names and roles include Celia Imrie (Keeping Faith, Better Things) as Malabelle, Simon Bird (Friday Night Dinner, The Inbetweeners) as Remy, Pam Ferris (Call The Midwife, Holmes & Watson) as Marie and Tom Rosenthal (Friday Night Dinner, Plebs) as Mr Bell.
But what will the cast do with the classic, Beauty And The Beast? In this unique interpretation there promises to be some clever camera tricks, surprising moments of comedy and of course big guest stars popping up including Miranda Hart, Lenny Henry, David Tennant, David Walliams and Michael Sheen. Illustrations will once again be provided by Quentin Blake.
While viewers enjoy the show at home, they will have the opportunity to donate to Comic Relief, if they feel able to, to help support people living with hunger, struggling with their mental health or feeling lonely or unsafe.
Beauty And The Beast, comes off the back of last year’s Cinderella, which starred Regé-Jean Page, Olivia Colman, Helena Bonham Carter, Anya Taylor Joy and 007 himself, Daniel Craig as the horse Wheezy Jeff, which raised nearly £900,000 for Comic Relief.
Beauty And The Beast – A Pantomime for Comic Relief will air on Sunday 19th December at 9pm on BBC Two.
Michael Sheen is set to appear on New Year’s Eve episode of The Graham Norton Show along with Jessica Chastain, Claire Foy, Peter Dinklage, Cush Jumbo, Joe Lycett, and The Divine Comedy.
The Graham Norton Show goes on air at 10pm GMT on BBC One.
The 2022 shortlists of the Broadcast Awards have been released. The second season of Staged has been nominated as Best Lockdown Programme. See the nominees below:
Help – The Forge for Channel 4
I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! – Lifted Entertainment for ITV
Kate Garraway: Finding Derek – Flicker Productions for ITV
Pandemic 2020 – KEO Films for BBC
Staged – GCB Films/Infinity Hill for BBC
Surviving Covid – Sandpaper Films for Channel 4
The winners will be announced at the live ceremony set to take place on February 10, 2022 in London.
Good luck to team Staged!
The second season of Staged, aired last January, has recieved two nominations in this year’s I Talk Telly Awards: Best Returning Comedy and Best Comedy Partnership (Michael Sheen and David Tennant). See the nominees below:
Best Returning Comedy
Back to Life
Feel Good
Ghosts
Inside No.9
Sex Education – WINNER
Staged
Stath Lets Flats
This Way Up
Best Comedy Partnership
Aidy Bryant & Lolly Adefope – Shrill
Charlotte Ritchie & Mae Martin – Feel Good
Daniel Mays & Stephen Graham – Code 404
David Tennant & Michael Sheen – Staged – WINNERS
Jane Fonda & Lily Tomlin – Grace and Frankie
Jane Horrocks & Samson Kayo – Bloods
Johnny Vegas & Sian Gibson – Murder, They Hope
Jon Richardson & Lucy Beaumont – Meet the Richardsons
Last year the first season won two prizes for Best New Comedy and Best Comedy Partnership.
You can vote here until Wednesday November 24 at 11.59pm GMT. The winners will be announced on Wednesday December 8 at italktelly.com.
Good luck to Michael, David and the whole Staged team!
Ler maisMichael Sheen has announced the launch of ‘Mab Gwalia’, a Welsh drama student scholarship scheme funded in partnership with Welsh band Manic Street Preachers. Here’s what he’s said about the project:
Ler mais“Opportunity should not only be available to those who can afford it.
Access to the best drama training should be a possibility for all those with sufficient talent and dedication regardless of their financial background.
As I have got older I have become more and more aware of how much the career that I have had was only made possible because of the support of a great many people.
I have also realised that unless ALL our voices and experiences are represented in the stories that we tell then ALL of us are worse off for it.
It is to this end that I am setting up the Mab Gwalia Welsh Drama Student Scholarship, funded by myself and Manic Street Preachers.
Each academic year up to £15,000 will be available to support up to three eligible students, based on financial circumstances and a personal statement.”
The BBC lockdown series Staged has been nominated as Best Comedy in the prestigious 60th annual Rose d’Or Awards. The other nominees in the category are:
Famalam – BBC Studios/BBC Three/UK
Motherland – Merman Television/Twofour/Lionsgate/BBC Two/UK
Bo Burnham: Inside – Netflix/USA
Journey (Vegferd) – Glassriver/Keshet International/Channel 2/Iceland
The New Black 2 – Dori Media Darset/Dori Media International/HOT/Israel
Staged – Infinity Hill/GCB Films/No Mystery/Rainmaker Content Limited/BBC One/UK
The winners of this year’s Rose d’Or Awards will be announced on November 29 in a virtual ceremony hosted by Sue Perkins on rosedor.com.
Wishing the team Staged the best of luck!
British channel Sky announced today that Michael Sheen and Nathalie Emmanuel are starring in a Sky Original film called Last Train To Christmas, written and directed by Julian Kemp and set to be released on Sky Cinema and streaming service NOW on December 18. This is the synopsis:
Ler maisTony Towers (Sheen) is about to take the trip of a lifetime. It’s 1985 and he’s a successful nightclub manager, a local celebrity and engaged to a much younger woman, Sue (Emmanuel). Things are going great. But when he embarks upon the 3:17 to Nottingham for a Christmas family reunion, things get a little strange. Moving up a carriage to the buffet car lands him in 1995, where he finds his clubs have failed and his life has fallen apart. Tony discovers that by moving up and down this fateful train, he can transport himself forward and backward to various stages of his life. Not only that, but the actions he takes in one carriage directly affect his life in the next. The question is, can Tony change his life – and the lives of the people he loves – for the better, or will he just make things worse?
The second season of Good Omens filming has begun! At least for Michael Sheen, who shared a first photo from his trailer in the set Scotland:
Ahead of the second season of Amazon Studios’ Good Omens, Michael Sheen plays the angel Aziraphale in a new audiobook production of Neil Gaiman and Terry Prachett classic book, featuring David Tennant as the demon Crowley, Rebecca Front as the narrator and a full cast.
Good Omens comes out on November 2. Click here to learn more about the audiobook. Additionally, watch the trailer below:
Michael Sheen and his partner Anna Lundberg were seen at the National Television Awards, last night in London. He was invited to present the Best Drama Performance award, given to David Tennant’ for his performance in Des. Watch the lovely moment they shared in video below:
We’ve added some photos of Michael’s appearance to our photo gallery:
