Christmas actually

Melissa McCarthy is a bubbly genie in a magical festive tale from Richard Curtis

- NATASHA HOLT, ALISON SLADE

NEW COMEDY
Genie
From Friday 1 December, 11.25am & 8pm, Sky Premiere

Having written and directed classic Christmas film Love Actually, Richard Curtis returns to a festive theme this week with brand-new movie Genie, which gets its debut on Sky Premiere.

Set in New York City, it stars The Lazarus Project’s Paapa Essiedu as Bernard Bottle, a man who accidentally summons genie Flora (Melissa McCarthy) when he’s in the middle of a crisis.

‘Christmas is the most fun time of year for someone to be miserable – and it’s the most fun time of year to help someone stop being miserable,’ says Curtis, 67, who wrote and produced the film.

‘I’ve just always been intrigued by magic, and there’s a limit to how many magical things Father Christmas can do. He only works that one night a year. So I thought a genie was a fun, new way of doing magic at Christmas.’