Christmas rom-com fans, fill your stockings…
Without a shadow of a doubt, Love Actually has entered the history books as one of the most popular Christmas films of all time.
Sure, it hasn’t aged all that well – those fatphobic jokes were completely needless, and there’s plenty to poke fun at elsewhere – but the movie, with its iconic cast of characters and quotable moments remains a favourite to this day.
Imagine our intrigue, then, to learn that the film’s stars are set to reunite this Christmas season.
That’s right, ABC will mark the film’s 20th anniversary with a one-hour special examining its legacy, titled ‘The Laughter & Secrets of Love Actually: 20 Years Later’.
For the show, Hugh Grant, Emma Thompson, Laura Linney, Bill Nighy and Thomas Brodie-Sangster will chat with news anchor Diane Sawyer as they reflect on the film. Martine McCutcheon will make a virtual appearance, and Love Actually’s writer Richard Curtis will also swing by.
Musical entertainment will be provided by Olivia Olson, whose childhood cover of ‘All I Want for Christmas Is You’ remains a favourite festive song of many.
The show will air in the US on Tuesday, 29 November. No word on an Irish broadcast just yet but until then, a snippet from the special shows Emma Thompson reflecting on how she first felt when she saw the film.
She says: “Hugh came up behind me, we were walking out, and he said, ‘Was that the most psychotic thing we’ve ever been in?'”
The camera then cuts to an embarrassed Hugh Grant, who shifts in his seat and says, “Did I say that?”
Grant recalls seeing his famous Downing Street dance to ‘Jump (For My Love)’ by The Pointer Sisters: “I saw it in the script and thought, ‘Well, I’ll hate doing that.'”
He also spills that it as his idea to have his moment ruined by the secretary lady in the background, who catches him off-guard.
Elsewhere in the trailer, Laura Linney talks about how the love in the film wasn’t necessarily positive.
“There was real legitimate heartache in that movie,” she says.
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