Christmas Actually: Richard Curtis announces festive stage show

Love Actually writer and manager Richard Curtis has announced a marque caller Christmas show, which volition travel to the signifier successful London this December.

Christmas Actually is not an adaptation of his beloved festive film, which was released successful 2003.

Instead, it volition beryllium a assortment amusement successful assistance of Comic Relief, featuring unrecorded music, performance, poesy and comedy.

Curtis told BBC News: "We anticipation it'll beryllium a existent cocoa container - oregon possibly advent calendar - of delights."

The writer and manager volition curate the show, and said audiences could expect it to beryllium "noisy and affectional and afloat of surprises and jokes, with immoderate due personage sparkle".

Christmas Actually volition tally for 8 performances astatine the Royal Festival Hall from 7-11 December. Tickets volition spell connected merchantability astatine 10:00 BST connected Wednesday.

"I retrieve I didn't ever emotion the Christmas shows I took my children to, but I ever took them to one," Curtis said. "So we thought it would beryllium amusive to marque a amusement for Christmas that truly is amusive for each the family.

"And past the thought of doing it besides to rise wealth for Comic Relief made the thought irresistible."

He added: "We anticipation to cram a wealthiness of wonderment into 90 noisy minutes. I fishy immoderate members of the assemblage volition spell distant with presents they weren't expecting; there'll decidedly beryllium immoderate rowdy singing on and immoderate unexpected celebrated radical volition popular up connected the screens and adjacent successful person."

Details of the stars who whitethorn look successful the amusement are being kept nether wraps - astatine slightest for now.

As a screenwriter, Curtis's credits see Notting Hill, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Bridget Jones's Diary and Yesterday, arsenic good arsenic TV sitcoms Blackadder and The Vicar of Dibley.

He besides directed The Boat That Rocked, About Time and Love Actually - each 3 of which helium besides wrote the screenplays for.

The 66-year-old besides co-founded Comic Relief, which supports projects that tackle poverty, alongside comedian Lenny Henry and the BBC.

"My strongest representation of Christmas, erstwhile I was young, was 1 twelvemonth erstwhile my parent 'cancelled Christmas' and we gave each the currency we mightiness person spent connected presents and nutrient to assistance with the famine successful Biafra," helium recalled. "But it was inactive a large Christmas."

He said helium wanted audiences to consciousness the same.

"I'm hoping that radical volition person a truly large clip - but besides beryllium portion of supporting superb Comic Relief projects changing people's lives, astatine location and abroad."

The assortment amusement volition unfold against a backdrop of unrecorded illustrations by immoderate well-known artists.

A unrecorded set volition play classical Christmas songs (presumably including Christmas Is All Around) portion a drawstring of actors and different well-known personalities volition present poetry, Christmas cracker jokes and children's letters to Santa.