Sandi Toskvig spreading festive cheer in new film
National treasure Sandi Toksvig is bringing laughter, carols and the joy of Christmas to audiences around the world in a festive film premiere.
Viewers are invited to don their best ugly Christmas jumper, pour a cup of eggnog and settle back to watch the production Christmas at the (Snow) Globe, which runs until January 5.
Shot at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London, the film is based on the 2019 production which was written and directed by Sandi Toksvig and her sister Jenifer.
To help share the Christmas cheer with as many people as possible, the Globe is offering all UK care homes and children’s hospitals Christmas at the (Snow) Globe for free.
To watch the film at home, tickets will cost £15 and are on sale now on the www.shakespeareglobe.com website.
Sandi will tour her onewoman live show The National Trevor Show in 2021, and her new book ‘Toksvig’s Almanac 2021: An Eclectic Meander Through the Historical Year’, was published this month.
Her television credits include Call My Bluff (as regular team captain) and Whose Line Is It Anyway? She took over from Stephen Fry as host of BBC2’s quiz show QI and co-hosted The Great British Bake Off until 2019.
For a decade Sandi was a familiar voice for BBC Radio 4 listeners as the chair of
The News Quiz which led to her induction into the Radio Hall of Fame.
Much of Sandi’s time is devoted to writing, with more than 20 fiction and non-fiction books for children and adults to her credit. Her adaptation of Mamma Mia! The Party opened at London’s O2 in 2019.
Sandi is an activist for gender equality, and in 2014 she co-founded the Women’s Equality Party.
The Globe closed its doors to the public in March but reached audiences internationally online during lockdown.
Filmed productions were
released on the YouTube channel and received more than 3.3 million views across 137 countries. Online, audiences have enjoyed Shakespeare’s works via projects such as ‘Love in Isolation’ featuring Stephen Fry, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, and Sandi and Jenifer Toksvig, and digital festivals filmed from the
Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, transformed into a broadcast studio. The festivals ‘Shakespeare and Race’, and ‘Shakespeare and Fear’ featured content such as a brand-new documentary on Romeo and Juliet with Alfred Enoch and Rebekah Murrell, and a semi-staged reading of Macbeth with Michelle Terry and Paul Ready, back in their critically acclaimed roles from 2018.
Over lockdown the Globe launched online family sessions ‘Telling Tales Together’ with live and interactive
events with families joining all around the world including Malta, Germany, Mexico, Australia, USA, Switzerland, Seychelles, France, Spain, Italy, Hong Kong, Russia, Singapore and India.
The iconic Globe Theatre and candlelit Sam Wanamaker Playhouse have also played host to a livestream of James Bay in concert, BBC Sound of 2020 musician Arlo Parks performing on Sky Arts, and the coveted dance partner reveal on BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing.
Throughout December the Globe is releasing a free advent calendar with a daily dose of festive fun, song and stories, including Amazing Peace by Maya Angelou read by Dona Croll, ’Twas The Night Before Christmas performed by Sophie Stone and Tilly’s Christmas by Louisa May Alcott read by Helen Schlesinger.