Dame & forure

Kiefer Sutherland plays a Hollywood star who winds up in panto..

- VICTORIA WILSON

NEW COMEDY Tinsel Town From Fri 5 Dec, 6.55am, 2.20pm, 8pm & 12.05am, Sky Premiere

Best known as special agent Jack Bauer in the hit series 24, Kiefer Sutherland pokes fun at his own Hollywood image this week when he plays a washed-up action hero who becomes an unlikely performer in a production of Cinderella at a small Yorkshire theatre.

Sky Premiere's one-off festive comedy Tinsel Town features Sutherland as Brad Mac, a self-obsessed megastar who's no longer in demand because nobody wants to work with him.

When his long-suffering agent (Katherine Ryan) signs him up for some theatre in the UK, he's expecting a William Shakespeare play or a West End musical. It's neither. He's been cast as Buttons in panto Cinderella... in the (fictional) Yorkshire town of Stoneford.

'Brad is a man who's lost himself in the film business,' reveals Sutherland, 58, who made his mark as part of Hollywood's 1980s 'Brat Pack' in films including The Lost Boys and Young Guns. 'Brad had early success and was kind of a fish out of water, and behaved how he thought a movie star should behave, which, unfortunately, was just really rude and improper, and he slowly lost who he was.'

THE STAGE IS SET

The cast also includes Bridesmaids' Rebel Wilson as no-nonsense choreographer Jill and Meera Syal as panto director Cassandra, who is outraged when Brad immediately declares he wants to quit the panto.

'Cassandra's put all her enthusiasm and love into this project,' explains