The Stage

Simon Callow and Celia Imrie to feature in Sky Arts season celebrating Dickens, Wilde and Coward

Published Wednesday 15 February 2012 at 12:18 by Matthew Hemley

Simon Callow, Patricia Hodge, Celia Imrie, Stephen Fry and Sheila Hancock are to star in a season of programmes on Sky Arts celebrating the works of Charles Dickens, Oscar Wilde and Noel Coward.

In Love With…Dickens, to be broadcast on February 21, will see Callow, Miriam Margolyes, Douglas Booth, Steve Evets, Thomas Brodie-Sangster bring their favourite Dickens characters to life through a series of monologues.

Meanwhile, In Love With…Coward will see Hodge read passages from the playwright’s Hands Across the Sea, while Karen Gillan will perform the closing voice-over from Brief Encounter. Hancock will recite Coward’s song, If Love Were All. This programme will air on March 12.

The final programme, In Love With…Wilde, to be broadcast on March 19, features Fry reading from The Happy Prince and Paterson Joseph performing from An Ideal Husband. Russell Tovey will also read from The Importance of Being Earnest and Caroline Quentin will perform from Lady Windermere’s Fan as part of this programme.

Sky Arts channel director James Hunt said: “I couldn’t imagine a better cast to celebrate the colourful work of Dickens, Coward and Wilde.”