*** Read my review and (very spoilery) article here ***
Honestly, when I saw this photo I thought we ’80s kids were finally getting the Pepsi and Shirlie biopic we’d been hoping for. But no, that *is* Michael Sheen (The Twilight Saga, The Queen) and Nathalie Emmanuel (Game of Thrones, Fast & Furious 7) who have joined the cast of Last Train to Christmas, a brand new Sky Original film.
Brits my age might well remember a brilliant post-apocalyptic TV serial in the late 1990s called The Last Train, about a railway carriage full of survivors accidentally cryogenically frozen for 50 years when a comet hits the UK. This is not a festive catch-up series, though it does look fantastic, A Christmas Carol meets The Hitman And Her meets Snowpiercer.
Here’s the synopsis:
Tony Towers (Sheen) is about to take the trip of a lifetime. It’s 1985 and he’s a successful nightclub manager, a local celebrity and engaged to a much younger woman, Sue (Emmanuel). Things are going great. But when he embarks upon the 3:17 to Nottingham for a Christmas family reunion, things get a little strange. Moving up a carriage to the buffet car lands him in 1995, where he finds his clubs have failed and his life has fallen apart. Tony discovers that by moving up and down this fateful train, he can transport himself forward and backward to various stages of his life. Not only that, but the actions he takes in one carriage directly affect his life in the next. The question is, can Tony change his life – and the lives of the people he loves – for the better, or will he just make things worse?
Last Train To Christmas joins other Sky Original films for the festive season including A Boy Called Christmas and A Christmas Number One.
Written and directed by Julian Kemp, Last Train to Christmas will be released on Sky Cinema and on streaming service NOW via the Sky Cinema Membership from 18 December. I will OF COURSE be reviewing it.