Hannah Waddingham’s kicking off the holidays. The “Ted Lasso” alum is returning to her musical roots with a newly released Apple TV+ special, “Hannah Waddingham: Home for Christmas.”
The Emmy Award winner, 49, recorded the episode live at The Coliseum in London, and invited some of her former co-stars and more — Phil Dunster, Nick Mohammed, Luke Evans, Leslie Odom Jr. and Sam Ryder — as her special guests.
Additional performances also include The Fabulous Lounge Swingers, the chorus of the English National Opera, the London Gay Men’s Chorus, and an 18-piece band. Dunster, 31, who played Jamie Tartt opposite Waddingham’s Rebecca Welton on “Ted Lasso,” even joined in for a rendition of “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas.”
The “Game of Thrones” alum is no stranger to showing off her vocals on the small screen. She sang multiple times while appearing on “Ted Lasso,” which ran for three seasons from 2020 to 2023.
A highlight for viewers was the show’s Season 2 episode titled “Carol of the Bells,” where Waddingham brings Ted (Sudeikis) to give kids toys for the holidays and they end up singing in the street as she belts out “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” with the AFC Richmond team.
“I love that song. I was the one that suggested it. So I was just grateful that Jason Sudeikis was like, ‘If you are happy with that one.’ I was like, ‘I just think it’s a great song,’” Waddingham told The Post.
“The thing that wasn’t great that day was it was not warm and I was a bit like, ‘Oh, we are actually just doing this live. I’m not gonna go into a studio afterwards and re-record it and make it sound pretty,” she continued. “They were like, ‘No. You are all right. You’ve been singing live all your life.’ And I was like, ‘Oh God, why did I tell them that?’”
With Waddingham’s stage work experience (“Into the Woods,” “Spamalot” and more) it was a no-brainer for the “Saturday Night Live” alum, 48, to have her sing on the series.
“The singing on ‘Ted Lasso’ is a hundred percent thanks to Mr. Sudeikis. Although I will say that him, Brendan Hunt, Brett Goldstein, they are all big musical theater nerds, far more than I am,” she told The Post and other reporters. “So they would come up with songs and I would just be like, ‘Guys, I don’t know the words to that.’ And they would look at me horrified and clutch their pearls because they just love musical theater. Jason grew up going to the theater in Kansas with his mom.”
One season prior, the English actress also sang a karaoke version of Frozen’s “Let It Go” during a night out with the football club.
“I remember Jason saying to me, ‘So you are gonna be singing this.’ And I was like, ‘Right. Can I just ask why is a football club owner’s singing?’ And he was like, ‘Yeah, we are not having this conversation. You’re just singing.’ And I was like, ‘Okay.’ It was not a subject for debate,” she recalled. “And then when I’d said the next season, I was just like, ‘But I’m not singing this season.’ Joe Kelly, one of the main writers, was just like, ‘No, you’re singing twice.’ And I laughed and he went, ‘No, you are singing twice.’”
“Ted Lasso” ended its run with “So Long, Farewell” on May 31, but audiences are still holding out hope for a fourth season — and so is Waddingham.
“There’s the opportunity and the fodder for several of the characters to spin-off in their own direction. And I think the characters are so beloved that it would be reasonable for them to do so,” she previously told Deadline, adding that there are “no plans” for her character to get another show.
“I do miss her terribly,” she told The Post. “The heart of Rebecca is something that I miss on a daily basis. I miss that girl like an old pal that I don’t see anymore.”
Despite no solid spin-off plans on the horizon, fans can catch Waddingham have a mini-reunion with some of her former cast mates on her new special. Juno Temple, Goldstein, 43, and Sudeikis are also featured at different points.
Other songs Waddingham will perform include “What Christmas Means To Me,” “Man With The Bag,” “Please Come Home For Christmas” (featuring Odom Jr.), “O’ Holy Night” (featuring English National Opera), “Run Rudolph Run” (featuring Ryder), “Winter Wonderland” (featuring Evans) and
“It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year” (featuring The London Gay Men’s Chorus).
“Hannah Waddingham: Home for Christmas” is now streaming globally on Apple TV+.
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