Olivia Colman ‘set to star in socially distanced Cinderella alongside Helena Bonham Carter’

Olivia Colman is set to star in a socially distanced version of pantomime, Cinderella, alongside The Crown co-star Helena Bonham Carter, according to new reports.

The Oscar winner, 46, who plays Queen Elizabeth II in the drama will reportedly play the fairy godmother in the series alongside Princess Margaret star Helena’s wicked stepmother Lady Devilia, reports The Mirror.

Joining the pair is Tom Hollander as Baron Hardup, comedian Guz Khan as Buttons, alongside brother and sister and This Country stars Daisy May and Charlie Cooper  as the evil step sisters.

The show is set to air on Christmas Eve at 8.15pm on BBC2.

In line with COVID-19 regulations, the special will be performed virtually with the actors taking on the roles from their own homes.

Artist Quentin Blake is also set to create special illustrations for key scenes in the pantomime.          

Comic Relief founder Richard Curtis said: ‘We’re hugely grateful to BBC2 and the amazing cast for allowing us to do our first-ever pantomime.’

BBC2 boss Patrick Holland said: ‘This is a unique surprise at the end of a year when we all need cheering up.  

‘Thank you so much to Richard Curtis and the team at Comic Relief for assembling such a stellar cast to deliver us a pantomime to remember.’

Mailonline has contacted representatives for Olivia Colman, Helena Bonham Carter and the BBC for comment.  

This comes as it emerged  Netflix has scored a huge hit with its fourth series of The Crown.

A new report claims that 29 million people logged onto the streaming service to watch the latest series of the royal family drama in its first week of release earlier this month.

While official figures are yet to be released by Netflix, that reported figure would mean more people watched the dramatised version of Prince Charles and Princess Diana’s courtship than the couple’s real life wedding in 1981.  

Just under 29 million globally watched the drama in its first week of release from November 4, that’s 600,000 more than watched TV coverage in Britain of the royal wedding in 1981, reports The Sun. 

750 million viewers watched the wedding around the world.   

Netflix does not officially publicise figures until a month after a show first comes out with official figures for series three showing that 21 million watched in its opening week. 

The fourth series though is expected to draw in more viewers thanks to its highly publicised portryal of Charles (played by Josh O’Connor) and Diana’s (played by newcomer to the show Emma Corrin) early years of courtship and marriage.  

The Sun report that Josh and Emma and other members of the cast were told about the soaring viewing figures recently, with a source saying: ‘Everyone involved is totally thrilled.’

‘There was more hype than ever on this year’s series, and arguably more pressure on all the cast, crew and writers.

‘But the reviews have been almost unanimously rave – and this is reflected in the first week viewing figures.

The lead up to the wedding of Prince Charles and Princess Diana is shown in episode 3 of the new series, but while fans get a glimpse of Emma in the Princess of Wales’ iconic dress, the show chose not to renact the wedding in full.  

As Emma explained to The Hollywood Reporter recently: ‘We never re-create things just for the sake of re-creating them.’

‘I think if we do re-create a scene – like the engagement scene, for instance, when they do the announcement – it has to be because it’s linked to something that the characters are going through. It has to be part of the story.’ 

She pointed out that, with the wedding scene, ‘you can YouTube it and you could be watching it in 10 seconds, so I don’t think there’d be any point in us re-creating it’. 

Josh added of the decision made by the show’s creator: ‘Peter Morgan isn’t interested in showing you the wedding because, yeah, Emma’s right, you just go on YouTube and you can watch it.’