Sheridan Smith & John Bishop interview

Comic John Bishop teams up with actress Sheridan Smith for the festive comedy-drama Panto!

Hugh Bonneville on playing messy tramp Mr Stink

The Downton Abbey actor joins Sheridan Smith, Johnny Vegas and Pudsey the dog in BBC's festive adaptation of David Walliams' children's story.

The seasonal return of the Little Crackers series, which features comedy shorts based on the autobiographical recollections of various actors and comedians. Previous participants have included Stephen Fry, Victoria Wood, Jack Whitehall and Sheridan Smith. This latest series begins with Joanna Lumley's Baby, Be Blonde, in which the 19-year-old Jo (Ottilie Mackintosh) is a struggling model who gets a break when she buys a blonde wig. "It didn't, but it made me feel that I had changed the course of my life," says Lumley in the behind-the-scenes film which follows the short. Also starring this week in later episodes are Rebecca Front and Caroline Quentin.

Pictures: Sheridan Smith, Hugh Bonneville film Mr Stink

Sheridan Smith has been snapped filming scenes for the BBC One adaptation of David Walliams children's novel Mr Stink.

Sheridan Smith & Johnny Vegas join Mr Stink cast

Sheridan Smith and Johnny Vegas are to join Hugh Bonneville in Mr Stink, BBC One's forthcoming 60-minute adaptation of David Walliams' popular children's novel.

Sheridan Smith to play Ronnie Biggs's wife

Sheridan Smith will play the wife of Ronnie Biggs opposite Daniel Mays in an ITV drama about the Great Train Robber.

Sheridan Smith, Jane Horrocks, John Bishop and Johnny Vegas are among the stars appearing in a week-long series of short autobiographical comedies. The season opens with Barbara Windsor, who recalls an embarrassing teenage encounter with a wardrobe mistress and a subsequent trip to buy her first bra. Also tonight, Jack Whitehall's story tells of a flamboyant 10 year-old who liked to dress up.

Sheridan Smith to play Bridget Jones on stage

The show and cast have not been officially confirmed, but the Olivier Award-winning actress Sheridan Smith is almost certain to win the role of Bridget Jones, having impressed Helen Fielding in extensive workshops for the production.

He's part Betjeman, part Meldrew and part stand-up comic gunning for his audience. There can't be many Dr Henry Pickerskills alive and working now in the education system because his brand of tough love, rough justice and abrasive shafts of wit directed at his pupils would probably breach the Human Rights Act.

The Pickerskill Reports is back with more of Dr P's ironic stories of life long ago at a boys' boarding school whose ethos is one in which normal laws don't apply, let alone what would then have been fanciful libertarianism. Dr P arrives in his classroom like Dirty Harry. Nemesis of bullies, alleviator of the torment of those he calls his "spirited iconoclasts" and a complete enigma to his headmaster who, somewhere in the recesses of his brain, knows that his English teacher is running rings around him.

The head is portrayed as militaristic but feeble-minded by Mike Sarne, the actor and director who has covered much ground since he tried to persuade Wendy Richard to Come Outside in the 1962 pop song. Making a guest appearance in the first episode was Sheridan Smith, also showing her versatility as an aristocrat playing at gender politics. Ian McDiarmid, as Dr P, brings a dryness of delivery and impeccable timing to the role while clearly relishing Andrew McGibbon's sardonic and entertaining script.