Actors David Tennant and Michael Sheen in 'Staged'. Courtesy BBC
Actors David Tennant and Michael Sheen in 'Staged'. Courtesy BBC
Actors David Tennant and Michael Sheen in 'Staged'. Courtesy BBC
Actors David Tennant and Michael Sheen in 'Staged'. Courtesy BBC

'Staged' season two: Michael Sheen and David Tennant's Zoom comedy returns with a host of famous faces


Farah Andrews
  • English
  • Arabic

A second season of the Zoom comedy Staged is here. The show is brought to British TVs by actors Michael Sheen and David Tennant.

As part of the series,  British actors play fictionalised versions of themselves – "Nothing like us at all," the pair stress time and time again in series two. Along the way, a number of notable famous faces dial in to say hello.

The show captures the lockdown mood perfectly. The first series aired in June 2020 and saw Sheen and Tennant trying to rehearse a performance of Luigi Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of an Author via video call during lockdown. Simon Evans plays a version of himself as director, who struggles to keep the actors in check.

David Tennant and Michael Sheen speak to Romesh Ranganathan and Sir Michael Palin on the first episode of 'Staged' Season 2. Courtesy BBC
David Tennant and Michael Sheen speak to Romesh Ranganathan and Sir Michael Palin on the first episode of 'Staged' Season 2. Courtesy BBC

As part of the second tongue-in-cheek series,  Evans will start work on an American version of Staged, without Sheen or Tennant.

In the first season,  Samuel L Jackson, Adrian Lester and Judi Dench all made appearances as themselves, as well as Georgia Tennant and Anna Lundberg, the real-life partners of each of the two stars.

Season two of Staged, however, is set to be even more jam-packed with A-list names as it heads stateside.

The cast list reads like a who's who in Hollywood and comedy.

Whoopi Goldberg plays Mary, Michael Sheen and David Tennant's agent in series two of 'Staged'. Courtesy BBC
Whoopi Goldberg plays Mary, Michael Sheen and David Tennant's agent in series two of 'Staged'. Courtesy BBC

Everyone from Christoph Waltz to Cate Blanchett have been roped in to play themselves in the comedy, along with beloved UK comedy stars, Romesh Ranganathan, Michael Palin, Nick Frost, Simon Pegg and Phoebe Waller-Bridge.

The list is rounded out with Ewan McGregor, Hugh Bonneville, Ken Jeong, Jim Parsons and Josh Gad.

Hollywood stars Whoopi Goldberg and Ben Schwartz also star, but not as themselves. Goldberg plays Mary, Sheen and Tennant's character's assistant, while Schwartz plays Tom, Mary's assistant and the pair's agents. Are you keeping up?

Season two starts with Tennant and Sheen appearing on Ranganathan's faux-chat show, Six Months into Lockdown, reflecting on the success of the first series of Staged and insisting that they will not do a second. It is all very meta indeed. At this stage, they are playing versions of themselves twice removed.

The second series of 'Staged' started on Wednesday, January 6, and is available to stream on YouTube now 

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Read more: 

Michael Sheen returned OBE to speak freely about British monarchy

'Locked Down': Anne Hathaway stars in heist film set during Covid-19 pandemic

Who is Rege-Jean Page? The 'Bridgerton' star who is tipped to be the next James Bond

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WHAT IS A BLACK HOLE?

1. Black holes are objects whose gravity is so strong not even light can escape their pull

2. They can be created when massive stars collapse under their own weight

3. Large black holes can also be formed when smaller ones collide and merge

4. The biggest black holes lurk at the centre of many galaxies, including our own

5. Astronomers believe that when the universe was very young, black holes affected how galaxies formed

Pharaoh's curse

British aristocrat Lord Carnarvon, who funded the expedition to find the Tutankhamun tomb, died in a Cairo hotel four months after the crypt was opened.
He had been in poor health for many years after a car crash, and a mosquito bite made worse by a shaving cut led to blood poisoning and pneumonia.
Reports at the time said Lord Carnarvon suffered from “pain as the inflammation affected the nasal passages and eyes”.
Decades later, scientists contended he had died of aspergillosis after inhaling spores of the fungus aspergillus in the tomb, which can lie dormant for months. The fact several others who entered were also found dead withiin a short time led to the myth of the curse.

Who has lived at The Bishops Avenue?
  • George Sainsbury of the supermarket dynasty, sugar magnate William Park Lyle and actress Dame Gracie Fields were residents in the 1930s when the street was only known as ‘Millionaires’ Row’.
  • Then came the international super rich, including the last king of Greece, Constantine II, the Sultan of Brunei and Indian steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal who was at one point ranked the third richest person in the world.
  • Turkish tycoon Halis Torprak sold his mansion for £50m in 2008 after spending just two days there. The House of Saud sold 10 properties on the road in 2013 for almost £80m.
  • Other residents have included Iraqi businessman Nemir Kirdar, singer Ariana Grande, holiday camp impresario Sir Billy Butlin, businessman Asil Nadir, Paul McCartney’s former wife Heather Mills. 
Hunting park to luxury living
  • Land was originally the Bishop of London's hunting park, hence the name
  • The road was laid out in the mid 19th Century, meandering through woodland and farmland
  • Its earliest houses at the turn of the 20th Century were substantial detached properties with extensive grounds

 

RESULTS

Bantamweight:
Zia Mashwani (PAK) bt Chris Corton (PHI)

Super lightweight:
Flavio Serafin (BRA) bt Mohammad Al Khatib (JOR)

Super lightweight:
Dwight Brooks (USA) bt Alex Nacfur (BRA)

Bantamweight:
Tariq Ismail (CAN) bt Jalal Al Daaja (JOR)

Featherweight:
Abdullatip Magomedov (RUS) bt Sulaiman Al Modhyan (KUW)

Middleweight:
Mohammad Fakhreddine (LEB) bt Christofer Silva (BRA)

Middleweight:
Rustam Chsiev (RUS) bt Tarek Suleiman (SYR)

Welterweight:
Khamzat Chimaev (SWE) bt Mzwandile Hlongwa (RSA)

Lightweight:
Alex Martinez (CAN) bt Anas Siraj Mounir (MAR)

Welterweight:
Jarrah Al Selawi (JOR) bt Abdoul Abdouraguimov (FRA)

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Three ways to limit your social media use

Clinical psychologist, Dr Saliha Afridi at The Lighthouse Arabia suggests three easy things you can do every day to cut back on the time you spend online.

1. Put the social media app in a folder on the second or third screen of your phone so it has to remain a conscious decision to open, rather than something your fingers gravitate towards without consideration.

2. Schedule a time to use social media instead of consistently throughout the day. I recommend setting aside certain times of the day or week when you upload pictures or share information. 

3. Take a mental snapshot rather than a photo on your phone. Instead of sharing it with your social world, try to absorb the moment, connect with your feeling, experience the moment with all five of your senses. You will have a memory of that moment more vividly and for far longer than if you take a picture of it.

Factfile on Garbine Muguruza:

Name: Garbine Muguruza (ESP)

World ranking: 15 (will rise to 5 on Monday)

Date of birth: October 8, 1993

Place of birth: Caracas, Venezuela

Place of residence: Geneva, Switzerland

Height: 6ft (1.82m)

Career singles titles: 4

Grand Slam titles: 2 (French Open 2016, Wimbledon 2017)

Career prize money: $13,928,719

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