Casting announced for Best Exotic Marigold Hotel UK tour

Initial casting has been announced for the forthcoming stage adaptation of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.

Oscar-winner Hayley Mills will star alongside Paul Nicholas, and Paula Wilcox.

EastEnders veteran Larry Lamb takes the lead in this gentle, week-long daytime drama, first shown on BBC One Wales. Set in a Welsh holiday park run by cockernee widower Frank (Lamb), it opens with the surprise return of a long-lost family member. Hayley Mills co-stars. Continues tomorrow.

TV's decision to sign up Jonathan Ross for a prime-time chat show is a magnanimous one.

In January, the foul-mouthed presenter announced Hayley Mills, the actress, as a guest on his Radio 2 show by saying: "She's now on ITV, which, I think, must be some sort of punishment."

Not all of his new colleagues may greet him with open arms. "Viewers have been put off watching Ross because he is beyond a joke,'' Lizzie Cundy, the presenter of ITV at the Movies, told Mandrake in 2008, after his suspension from the BBC for his shameful harassment of the actor Andrew Sachs, 80.

"On our show, we're not rude or condescending to anyone. We do nice interviews and don't make any crude comments. Angelina [Jolie] was meant to be on the Ross show, but she's coming over to us."