31 December 2021 (2021-12-31) – 24 November 2022 (2022-11-24)
Staged is a British television comedy series. Set and filmed during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom, primarily using video-conferencing technology, the series stars actors Michael Sheen and David Tennant as fictionalised versions of themselves. Simon Evans, Georgia Tennant, Anna Lundberg, and Lucy Eaton also star. The first series premiered 10 June 2020 on BBC One, and the second series premiered 4 January 2021 on BBC One. A Comic Relief New Year Special was uploaded to the BritBoxYouTube page on 31 December 2021. A third series premiered on 24 November 2022 on BritBox.
Premise
In the first series, Michael Sheen and David Tennant play fictionalised versions of themselves, trying to rehearse a performance of Luigi Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of an Author during lockdown via videoconference,[2] while the underconfident director, Simon, struggles to keep control of the production.[3][4]
The second series follows the "real" Michael and David following the success of the first series of Staged. Simon begins work on an American remake of the first series but Michael and David are not asked to reprise their roles.
The third series starts with Simon trying to get Michael and David to agree to a Christmas staged version of Six Characters in Search of an Author, and later A Christmas Carol, before becoming a metafictional behind the scenes documentary of the show entitled Backstaged.
The series premiered on 10 June 2020 on BBC One.[5] On 22 October 2020, it was announced that a second series had been commissioned.[6] The second series premiered on 4 January 2021 on BBC One, and all eight episodes were added to BBC iPlayer on the same day.[7] A New Year Special was uploaded to BritBoxYouTube page on 31 December 2021, with Michael, David, Simon, Georgia, Anna & Lucy all reprising their roles.[8]
The first series was released in the U.S. via streaming service Hulu on 16 September 2020.[9]
A third series of six episodes premiered on 24 November 2022 on BritBox UK.[10][11]
Reception
The first series was well received by critics. Louis Chilton, in a four-starred review for The Independent, described Staged as "a welcome distraction, an eminently watchable portrait of two artists as petulant, egotistical children".[12] Anna Leszkiewicz, for the New Statesman, said it was "charming: absurdly silly in a quiet, understated way".[3] Rupert Hawksley, in the i, described it as "compelling 'lockdown' television".[4] Gabriel Tate, reviewing Staged for Metro, said "Sheen and Tennant shared a warmth and willingness to take the mickey out of each other that felt entirely unforced."[13] Fergus Morgan, writing in The Stage, gave the production five stars and said: "Tennant and Sheen are excellent, perennially, even when performing as themselves to their own laptops. Here, joined by Evans and by their real-life spouses – the actors Georgia Tennant and Anna Lundberg – they are on top form, crackling with snide chemistry. The whole thing is a treat."[14]
The second series received more mixed reviews. Rupert Hawksley of The Independent called the first episode "stale and indulgent [...] Perhaps Staged was always this smug and we just didn’t notice, so grateful were we to have something new to watch, but the tone is now horribly out of step with the national mood." Writing for The Telegraph, Anita Singh criticised the meta aspects of the second series, saying "Staged is at its best when the duo are being funny, rather than debating whether or not they’re funny."
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