Hannah Waddingham is taking fans home for Christmas this year with a festive new Apple TV+ special filled with holiday classics, big band music and even a visit from some of her Ted Lasso co-stars. The Emmy-winning actress, who played Rebecca Welton on the critically acclaimed series, opened up about the special meaning behind Hannah Waddingham: Home for Christmas ahead of the Wednesday, Nov. 22 premiere, calling it her “greatest achievement” yet.
Recorded in front of a live audience at the London Coliseum, Waddingham will be joined by previously-announced guest stars Sam Ryder, Luke Evans, Leslie Odom Jr., Phil Dunster, The English National Opera, The London Gay Men’s Chorus, The Fabulous Lounge Swingers, as well as some of her other Ted Lasso co-stars who Waddingham said were “so keen” to stop by for a heartwarming reunion.
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The three-time Olivier Award nominee recalled in a press conference her favorite moment of filming the special, singing “Oh Holy Night” in the very same theater in which she spent much of her childhood as the daughter of opera singer Melodie Kelly. Waddingham was touched by “the unbelievable timing” of the fact that her own daughter was 8 when they shot the special and that she was sitting in the box where her mother had sat when she was 8 to watch her own mother perform.
Also watching the performance were Waddingham’s mother and father. “To have my mom there at all when I didn’t even know she was gonna make it – she’s heavily inflicted with Parkinson’s disease, bless her. It was a big deal for me to get her there in her wheelchair. And my father who had gone through quintuple heart surgery while I was shooting the third season of Ted Lasso,” Waddingham added. “To have them both there and to have my daughter [there] – if I never did anything again, this special would be my greatest achievement.”
Waddingham hopes the special will bring “old school love and joy” and “positivity” into the hearts of the viewers who tune in. “You know, we are in such a mess of unkindness and selfishness at the moment in the world,” she said. “I know that there are far more important things in the world on a global scale, but everyone needs distraction. Everyone needs to smile. Everyone needs to shed a tear when they need to. And if I can provide that for 45 minutes as a little, you know, pill of happiness in a glass for them, then I hope that’s what this is.” Hannah Waddingham: Home for Christmas debuts on Apple TV+ on Wednesday, Nov. 22.
