Tinsel Town cast reveal Kiefer Sutherland's reaction to British panto for new Christmas film

This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine.

A drizzly February day in Leeds and, inside Versa Studios, they’re filming the ghost of Christmas future. After location visits to theatres and town halls in Knaresborough, Wetherby and Wakefield, it’s day 17 of a 25-day shoot for Tinsel Town, a new Sky Cinema production packed with more acting stars than a West End panto.

Which is only fitting. This “Richard-Curtis-meets-Ealing-Comedy” caper is a loving, frequently hilarious tribute to the great British festive tradition of fairy tales and ugly sisters, shiny princesses and camp-fabulous villains; of local pantomimes that light up communities year after year.

In a cast ludicrously stacked with talent, Kiefer Sutherland is American action movie star Bradley Mack whose career is behind him (oh, yes it is!), while Rebel Wilson is the choreographer in the mythical Yorkshire town of Stoneford tasked with assimilating the reluctant, Billy-big-boots thesp into the role of Buttons in her am-dram production of Cinderella.

“I play Cassie, the director of the panto that this big Hollywood star has found himself in – accidentally,” Meera Syal tells RT as cast, crew and dancing fairies prepare to shoot a one-shot song-and-dance number set to Ariana Grande and Kelly Clarkson’s Santa Can’t You Hear Me.

“I know a lot of directors, obviously, and she’s one of those directors who has done hundreds of pantos – and loves them.”

Syal is one of a selection box of British stars rounding out that cast: take a bow, Sir Derek Jacobi, Danny Dyer, Asim Chaudhry, Maria Friedman, Alice Eve, Mawaan Rizwan and Jason Manford.

“Really it was the cast that appealed to me,” admits adoptive Brit Katherine Ryan. The Canadian comedian plays Mack’s long-suffering Los Angeles agent, whose booking of her client into a provincial panto isn’t quite the prestigious, Shakespeare-at-The-Globe gig that her arrogant client thinks it is – but that just might bring him the personal redemption he needs. “I don’t do much acting work but I was on tour with my show in Leeds, and the dates just made sense.”

Sutherland, she adds, “is such a Canadian icon. I had just worked with Shania Twain, and I thought: ‘It’s God’s plan for you, Katherine, to meet all of your Canadian heroes.’”

Wilson seconds that emotion. “Kiefer is obviously such an experienced actor,” says the Australian star of the Pitch Perfect films. “I wouldn’t have thought of ever co-starring opposite him because we do completely different kinds of genres. He’s just such a great scene partner and we have most of our stuff together in the film… He brings this intensity and a coolness to Brad.”

That intensity and cool is on full display in Leeds as Bradley reluctantly shows off some surprisingly slick “choreo” in a routine with Wilson’s Jill. Sutherland is the 58-year-old known for Stand by Me, Young Guns, A Few Good Men and, of course, the indomitable Jack Bauer across nine seasons of the action series 24.

Where, I ask him, did those dance moves come from? “Sheer fear!” he replies with a laugh, before lavishing praise on Tinsel Town’s choreography team. “It reminded me of theatre school! I don’t think I’ve had to do a dance number since. The film has probably five or six things that, in all the films and hundreds of hours of television that I’ve done, you won’t find me doing in any other single thing. All those things were part of the attractive elements of the project for me in the first place.”

Rizwan – a Bafta winner for his surreal comedy show Juice – plays a member of the Stoneford community who holds down an amusingly wide range of service jobs. For him, appearing in a Christmas film is “my childhood dream”. Still, that A-list cast “terrified” him. “On the second day of us shooting together,” he says, “I had to do a scene where I drove a manual car. And bear in mind

I haven’t driven a manual since I passed my driving test years ago. It was this 60s Volkswagen camper van with a dodgy gear stick, Kiefer’s sitting in next to me, Rebel’s behind, the rest of the cast are in the back. The net worth of the people inside this van alone is something to be terrified of! And I kept stalling it. Luckily everyone found it really funny.”

That humour was baked into the production from the off, not least in the script. Stage veteran Maria Friedman – who plays a tipsy, frisky member of the panto cast who thinks she’s in with chance with Bradley – can attest to that. For her, the appeal of Tinsel Town was twofold: “One, the script made me laugh out loud – we’re all in need of that right now, frankly. And two, Kiefer – of course! He’s responsible for seminal moments of my TV-watching life. He was my very first binge-watch of a box set in 24. It was just brilliant film-making and storytelling, led by this fantastic actor.”

Sutherland is game enough to admit that, before he worked on this film, his knowledge of pantomime was next to zero. Luckily, when filming began last January, Manford (who plays an ugly sister alongside Chaudhry) had just come off Manchester Opera House’s production of Cinderella. He was able to educate Sutherland on some of the tradition’s finer points. It only added to the very meta feeling of Tinsel Town.

“I do think there were moments on set where Kiefer was genuinely going: ‘Hang on a minute! What’s happened here? I’m a Hollywood star playing Buttons in Wakefield!’” But equally the stand-up – about to start in Manchester in Robin Hood, his fourth panto in a row – is best-placed of all the Tinsel Town cast to speak to the power of this peculiarly British theatrical stalwart.

“Pantos can be derided as cheap theatre,” Manford says, “but they have something for every generation. And when they sell out those few weeks round Christmas, it’s the thing that keeps a lot of theatres open. What I say to anybody who’s a bit snobby about it is: ‘The reason you’re watching The Cherry Orchard in a half-full theatre in April is because we did Snow White in December!’ That’s how important it is for British theatre.”

Unsurprisingly, then, the love of pantomime also provides the heart, soul and lolz in a cheering slice of festive ham that might enter the Christmas cinematic canon. Katherine Ryan certainly thinks so. “Tinsel Town is super-funny. It has Elf capabilities.” High praise indeed.

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Sky Original Film Tinsel Town will be coming to Sky Cinema on 5th December 2025.

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