Luke Evans Christmas special to be screened in December

Welsh singing and acting star, Luke Evans will front an hour long one-off musical special this December, airing on BBC One Wales and BBC Two.

Recorded this week at the ICC in Newport, Luke Evans Showtime! will see the Hollywood star team up with special guests for an exclusive evening of music.

The star of The Hobbit and Beauty and the Beast, Luke Evans will be performing tracks from his latest album, A Song for You, and will be joined guest stars LeAnn Rimes, Olly Murs and  British musical theatre star, Beverley Knight, plus other guest appearances throughout the show.

Before making his mark in Hollywood, Luke Evans cut his teeth in the West End with performances in Rent and Miss Saigon, and organisers say this show will be an opportunity for the Welsh star to celebrate that side of his career and his love of musical performances.

Duets

Released earlier in November, his album, A Song For You draws its title from the Donny Hathaway song that’s one of Evans’ lifelong favourites, and with which he opens the 14-song selection.

The foundations of the album are four songs that speak to both his talent and to the respect in which he’s held by his peers: the two tracks he’s written with renowned songwriter Amy Wadge (credits incl. Ed Sheeran, Jessie Ware, James Blunt) alongside two stellar duets with Nicole Kidman (Say Something) and Charlotte Church (Come What May).

Films

Evans will play Ebenezer Scrooge in Netflix’s animated adaptation of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, which also hits the screens in December.

Hailing from Aberbargoed, a village in the Rhymney Valley, he will be joined by Oscar winner Olivia Colman, who plays the Ghost of Christmas Past and Jessie Buckley, who plays Isabel Fezziwig.

In addition to his musical career, Evans has continued to take the acting world by storm having appeared in huge Hollywood blockbusters such as The Fast and The Furious, Beauty & The Beast, The Girl On The Train, The Hobbit, 3 Musketeers, plus ITV’s The Pembrokeshire Murders, Netflix’s Nine Perfect Strangers and Hulu’s Murder Mystery.

He also recently appeared in the live-action Pinocchio film alongside Tom Hanks & Robert Downey Jnr.