Backstage With… Jason Sudeikis and the stars of Ted Lasso
When Ted Lasso first arrived on our screens in the summer of 2020, it couldn’t have come at a better time.
TV audiences who had been through tough experiences in their own lives due to the COVID-19 pandemic – and had also been starved of real football matches while teams were locked down – couldn’t resist the story of the relentlessly optimistic American football coach brought to the UK to train the fictional AFC Richmond.
After charming viewers, the success of the series continued during awards season earlier this year, with Jason Sudeikis, who plays the lead role and co-created the show, going viral for picking up his Golden Globe while wearing a tie-dye hoodie.
Brendan Hunt, Sudeikis and Nick Mohammed star in the series, about an American football coach who comes to the UK to train a London football team
More recently, the series earned 20 Emmy nominations – including a whopping six for supporting cast members – and a second series has just launched.
Sudeikis told Sky News’ Backstage Podcast it was almost straight away that he realised they were on to a winner.
“The show premiered on a Friday and then on Monday we got a call from Apple saying, hey, we want to do a second season,” he says. “In this day and age of no longer having Nielsen ratings or box office earnings showing up on a Monday morning, that was a little bit of a tell.”
But it was the impact the programme had on social media that really brought home to Sudeikis how much it meant to fans, particularly after a speech in episode six given by Ted, which re-purposes a real press conference moment by NBA star Allen Iverson in which he talks about missing practice.
“When that started to permeate, like sort of started to spread around the internet [and] social media culture, that was something that really resonated then,” he says. “Then we started getting messages back and people saying things to us.
“Our more active writers and producers and cast members that are more inclined to using social media, when they started getting certain messages about how much people were enjoying the show and feeling thankful for the show, that was really moving and telling.”
Hannah Waddingham plays Rebecca, AFC Richmond’s owner
Production for the second series began in London in January, marking the first time the cast and crew could mark the success of the show together. However, the strict COVID regulations that productions had to adhere to meant those celebrations were sadly muted.
“We all had to wear masks and we weren’t allowed to hug, so it was sort of anticlimactic,” says Brendan Hunt, another of the show’s creators, who plays the enigmatic Coach Beard.
“It was like going to Christmas with the family but you’re all wearing hazmat suits – it’s hard to open presents!”
Hannah Waddingham, who plays the club’s fabulous owner Rebecca, agrees. “The COVID police, as I called them, were literally… you’d see someone and you’d want to go, ‘Oh my God, what about the show’s success?’ and they’d go ‘no, no, no, stay apart’.
“I desperately wanted to give Nick Mohammed a squeeze, playing Nate, or just rub his cheeks or something because he’s so brilliant in it, and you just couldn’t get anywhere near anyone. And it continued like that for the whole of season two.”
Subscribe to the Backstage podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Spreaker
For Sudeikis – who is often asked about where he ends and Ted Lasso begins – the reaction from fans to the show, and the character, has been welcome.
“It’s actually been really, really nice getting back here to the States, Brooklyn specifically, and walking around, going to see the Brooklyn Nets at Barclays and having, you know, fathers and sons, when I’m there with my son, stop and asking for photos.
“And, you know, I always said yes before, but I don’t feel pressured to do it now – I just feel like I like what they’re stopping for. And the messages that they exchange of appreciation and really caring about this show has been really cool.”
The second series of Ted Lasso is streaming on Apple TV Plus. Hear our review on this week’s episode of Backstage, the film and TV podcast from Sky News.
Entertainment
Googlebox star George Gilbey’s mum reveals his last words to her before he fell to his death
The mother of Gogglebox star George Gilbey has revealed his last words to her were “I love you”.
Gilbey died after falling through a plastic skylight while fixing a warehouse roof in Essex in March.
The 40-year-old appeared alongside his mum, Linda McGarry, and stepdad on the hit Channel 4 show.
The family first appeared on the second series of Gogglebox in 2013 but were dropped the following year when Gilbey signed up for the 14th series of Celebrity Big Brother in 2014, reaching the final.
Mrs McGarry said she spoke to him on the phone hours before his death.
Gilbey appeared alongside his mum Linda and stepdad Pete on Gogglebox. Pic: PA
She told The Sun: “He phoned me at 9.30 in the morning and said he was working – and asked me for his ‘breakfast money’.
“I put £30 in his account so he could get food, and he seemed fine.
“He had a drink the night before, and liked a bottle of white wine or two, but was happy that he was working. He ended the phone call by saying, ‘I love you’ like he usually did. I treasure those words.”
She added: “It was an honour for him to have been my son. We had a blast for 40 years.”
Mrs McGarry said her son had struggled with the death of his dad, stepfather and her own Parkinson’s diagnosis.
At the time of his death, he was working to save money to move closer to his seven-year-old daughter, Amelie, in southwest London.
“He wanted to be with Amelie, who he adored,” she told The Sun.
“They were on the third day of a job that was going to last a month, and he was going to get money together from that.
“When they were together, George and Amelie were always laughing. She is going to miss him terribly, like we all will.”
Read more from Sky News:
Social media influencer shot dead by motorbike gunman
TV doctor struck off for exchanging Botox for sex at his clinic
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
Gilbey suffered traumatic injuries to his head and torso and died at the scene in Shoeburyness.
An inquest was opened last week but suspended after a request from police pending a criminal investigation.
A man in his 40s from the Witham area of Essex was previously arrested on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter
He was later released under investigation.
Entertainment
Bestselling author CJ Sansom dies days before Disney adaption of his Shardlake series airs
Author CJ Sansom, who created the character of Matthew Shardlake, has died at the age of 71, his publisher has announced.
Sansom first introduced readers to Shardlake – a lawyer who solves crimes while navigating the religious reforms and political intrigue of Tudor England – in the 2003 book Dissolution.
The Scottish writer released six further novels featuring Shardlake, as well as two standalone historical novels, Winter In Madrid and Dominion.
His works have just been adapted into the series Shardlake, which features The Innocents star Arthur Hughes as the main character and Game Of Thrones actor Sean Bean as Thomas Cromwell.
The first season of the Tudor murder mystery series is set to be released by Disney+ on Wednesday.
Sansom was described as one of Britain’s best historical novelists. Pic: Pan Macmillian/PA
Announcing his death on Monday, publishers Pan Macmillan wrote in a statement: “It is with immense sadness that Pan Macmillan announces the death of CJ Sansom.”
“‘It is an extraordinarily strange coincidence that Chris has died only a handful of days before a new generation of fans will meet Matthew Shardlake, Barak and Guy and co for the first time through,” his agent, Antony Topping, said.
“This is also a moment for which Chris’s established fans have been waiting a long time.
“Chris was so proud of all the work and determination that went into bringing the novels to our television screens, which I hope will bring an entirely new audience to the books and which will maybe also inspire some old fans to return to their favourite CJ Sansom novels.”
Sansom’s long-time editor and publisher, Maria Rejt, added that he was working on a new Shardlake book but his “worsening health made progress painfully slow”.
Arthur Hughes as protagonist Matthew Shardlake. Pic: Disney+ UK
She described the author as an “intensely private person” who took immense pleasure in the public’s enthusiastic response to his novels.
“I shall miss him hugely, not only as a wonderfully talented writer who gave joy to millions, but as a dear friend of enormous compassion and integrity,” Ms Rejt said.
Shardlake featured as the protagonist in a total of seven of Sansom’s novels. Dissolution was dramatised once before by BBC Radio 4 in 2012.
Read more on Sky News:
Googlebox star’s mum last words to son
Harvey Weinstein taken to hospital
ITV newsreader becomes unwell live on air
Sean Bean stars in the new series based off Sansom’s debut novel. Pic: Disney+ UK
With more than three million copies of his novels in print, Sansom was awarded the Crime Writers’ Association Cartier Diamond Dagger Award in 2022 for his outstanding contribution to the genre.
Born in Edinburgh in 1952, Sansom attended Birmingham University where he studied an undergraduate degree and PhD in history.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
He worked as a solicitor before becoming a full-time writer where he was able to combine his passion for history and law securing him as one of Britain’s bestselling historical novelists.
Sansom was also a signatory to an 2014 open letter advocating that Scotland should remain in the UK.
The author also donated £161,000 to the Better Together campaign, according to published accounts.
Entertainment
Rageh Omaar says he was ‘determined to finish presenting programme’ after becoming unwell live on air
-
Sports2 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Environment11 months agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Sports3 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Sports6 months agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Environment1 year agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Technology3 years ago
Game consoles were once banned in China. Now Chinese developers want a slice of the $49 billion pie
-
Politics2 years ago
Have the last few wobbly weeks seen a turning point for Johnson as PM?