Christmas Archive

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2013 Advent Calendar pt

click on pic to see a larger image

click on pic to see a larger image


 
 
 

A Nicola picture a day to help you countdown to Christmas 2013. Starts on 1 December 2013.

Click HERE to see the full 2013 Advent Calendar.

Once again, massive thanks to Liga for putting this together. 😀 And THANK YOU to Nicola, for answering Liga’s questions which make up the calendar. ♡♡♡

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Christmas Diaries

Christmas-Diaries

Following the success of the Easter Diaries on BBC Radio 4 Extra earlier this year, producer Paul Arnold and writer Nick Warburton have teamed up again to produce the Christmas Diaries. This programme will be a series of 5 short episodes of about 5 minutes each, airing from Friday, 21 December 2012 until Thursday, 27 December 2012 (there will not be any broadcasts on Saturday and Sunday during this period), at just before 11 am and 9 pm GMT each day on BBC Radio 4 Extra.

From producer Paul Arnold’s BBC Radio 4 Blog

Like the earlier project, the idea was to re-tell the familiar story from the perspective of those involved, either well-known characters such as Joseph and Mary, or those from Nick’s imagination – a traveller on the Nazareth road, or one of Herod’s lawyers. And we wanted once more to do that in real time, hearing day by day how it might have felt for them, without our perspective coloured by the centuries in between.

Nicola will voice the part of the Traveller, who meets Joseph and reflects on the past. Her episode will air on BBC Radio 4 on Christmas Eve, Monday, 24 December 2012.

If you cannot tune in at the appropriate time, you can always catch up on the BBC Radio iPlayer which does not have any geographic restrictions – you can listen to BBC radio programmes from anywhere in the world. (Look for this programme under “C” for the “Christmas Diaries”.)

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2012 Advent Calendar is here!

Once again, Liga has prepared for us an Advent Calendar, featuring the one and only Nicola Walker!

You can view the 2012 Advent Calendar HERE.

Want to see the 2011 Advent Calendar? Go HERE.

Enjoy!

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2011 Advent Calendar pt

Following the success of her Ruth Evershed in a Nutshell comic book, Liga has now put together the 2011 Advent Calendar for us. You can view the Calendar HERE. This should help you track the days leading up to Christmas.

If you like the Advent Calendar, why not leave a comment below to let Liga know. 🙂

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Nicola in Season’s Greetings

Season’s Greetings is a play written by Alan Ayckbourn in 1980 which had its world premiere on 25 September 1980 at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in the Round, Scarborough, and its London Premiere on 28 January 1982 at the Greenwich Theatre. There has been many productions of this play over the years. According to the description in the webpage for this production at the National Theatre, the play offers a seriously entertaining look at the misery and high jinks of an average family Christmas.

In the 2010 National Theatre production, Nicola plays Rachel, the sister of Belinda (played by Catherine Tate) who is the female lead of this play. In the play, Rachel is described as “a little older than her sister, Belinda and less conventionally pretty …”. Not sure about the “less conventionally pretty” bit. Nicola can play them in all shapes and sizes, conventionally or unconventionally pretty, sane/manic, demure/man eater etc.

The Season’s Greetings page on the National Theatre website can be found HERE. Click through the rehearsal photos and you will see a very pretty photo of Nicola, hard at work during rehearsals (see above).

(*the Rehearsal Gallery seems to be broken at the moment. We have emailed the National Theatre about this and they have indicated that they will look into it and fix it soon.)

Update 25 November 2010

The Rehearsal Gallery’s been fixed. Yay!

Thanks to the National Theatre, we have also been given permission to display this colour version of that rehearsal photo. There is a slightly large version of this photo in the Galleries section.

The first batch of 29 performances, to run from 1 December 2010 to 4 January 2011, have been sold out. The National Theatre recently announced a second batch of 39 performances, to run from 12 January 2011 till 13 March 2011 and tickets have been selling quite briskly. If you wish to catch Nicola’s performance, you will need to get tickets without further delay!

Press night will be held on 8 December 2010. We will be updating this post with Reviews and press night photos on 9 December 2010.

Update  8 December 2010

The National Theatre has now put up a Production Gallery on the Season’s Greetings page which you can find HERE. There’s one picture of Nicola on her own and a second picture of her with two other cast members.

The Reviews are in and you can find links to them and other resources relating to this play HERE.

Update 12 December 2010

There is now available on the National Theatre Season’s Greetings website a short video of interview with cast members who share their thoughts on Christmas. You can access it HERE. Nicola appears in the beginning of this interview. If for any reason you cannot access the video or it gets pulled so that its no longer available, we have a transcript of what Nicola said HERE (in the second part of that Post).

Update 14 December 2010

Nicola has been interviewed by Whats on Stage about her role in Season’s Greetings. You can access the article HERE.

Update 17 December 2010

The National Theatre will stage a Theatrical Quiz on 21 December 2010 at 6 pm where the Season’s Greetings cast, led by Catherine Tate, will compete against the Hamlet cast, led by Claire Higgins, on their knowledge of all things relating to theatre. The event will be moderated by Emma Freud. Tickets at ₤3.50/₤2.50 each. The event will last about 45 minutes. There is a maximum of four members in each team, and sadly, Nicola was not picked for the Season’s Greetings team (to be known as the Amazing Ayckbourns).

Marianne Elliot, the Director of Season’s Greetings, will give a talk on the show on 4 January 2011.

Each of Mark Gatiss, Catherine Tate and David Troughton of the Season’s Greetings cast, will give talks, on different dates, in February.

You can read about these event at the “Platforms” section at the National Theatre website HERE.

Update 22 December 2010

Congratulations to the Amazing Ayckbourns, who won the 2010 National Theatre Annual Theatre Quiz. Its a pity that the National Theatre has declined to publish a list of the questions and answers which formed this quiz.

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Nicola on Christmas

Towards the end of 2007 when Nicola was doing publicity for Oliver Twist (she played Sally), she gave an interview to Whats on TV where she talked about her views on Christmas. The video of this short interview used to be available on the Whats on TV website, but sadly they must have archived the video because the link is no longer live. So for the benefit of fans who are interested in Nicola’s views on Christmas, here is a transcript of that interview.

Interviewer (“Int”) : What are you planning this Christmas?

NW : Erm, I don’t know, cos I’m in that awful phase, that thing where you’re all rowing. I’m rowing with my husband, I’m rowing with my dad, his rowing with his brother, about where we go. That for me has now slightly become Christmas, where you row about where you’re driving, for how long, for what day. And its like having trumps, cards, where you sort of swap them. I’ll swap you Boxing Day for Christmas Day if you do the Christmas Eve. I don’t know where I’m going to be, but I know that I’ll probably be in a car, driving somewhere, for most of it.

Int : Who usually wins, these Christmas disputes?

NW : (Smiles) Me, yeah.

Int : So you know where you’re going to be?

NW : I do, secretly, (laughs), I know exactly where I’m going to be, on Christmas Day. (Nods) yep.

Int : And what do you particularly like or dislike about Christmas?

NW : I think I really like the build up to Christmas, that’s fantastic, putting the tree up is brilliant, and then everything from about 11 o’clock on Christmas morning, it starts going downhill for me. Then its all the law of diminishing returns after that, after you’ve opened the presents, its all downhill. But then you’ve also got New Year’s to look forward to, when one could get raucously drunk and embarrass oneself in front of one’s family.

Int : Or you could start getting drunk on Christmas Day …

NW : Well I’ll obviously, actually, be watching Oliver Twist, that’s what I’ll be doing.

(This was three years before Nicola knew that she was going to be in Season’s Greetings at the National in 2010!)

Update 12 December 2010

National Theatre/Season’s Greetings Cast Interview

The National Theatre has just put up a video of interview of the cast of Season’s Greetings, with their thoughts on Christmas. You can watch the video here, by clicking on “cast interview”. Nicola was interviewed together with Oliver Chris at the beginning of this video. In case the video is not available to non-UK IP addresses, or becomes unavailable, here is a transcript of that interview :

Oliver Chris : We eat turkey.
NW : We do that as well, I think we often do that.
OC : Do You?
NW : Do you listen to Phil Spector’s Greatest Christmas Hits?
OC : I love that, I love that, that is the best album.
NW : That is, isn’t it.
OC : I was going to give everyone that for first night presents, I won’t bother now.
NW : I think we are really traditional in my family. I don’t think we do anything strange. We adhere to all the …
OC : Do you argue?
NW : We do all the things you’re meant to do at Christmas.
OC : Argue, fight, watch telly
NW : Yeah, argue, fight, laugh, reminisce …
OC : Stuff your face until you can’t eat any more.
NW : Yeah …
OC : With a chocolate orange …
NW : Yep, we keep eating.


For more interviews with Nicola, go to Interviews.