Joined in 2023 
82 
63 About this deal
Recalling the extraordinary memory, Mark quipped: ‘It’s quite a moment when you’ve just come out of Sainsbury’s doing your Christmas shopping and you get a phone call from Elton John. It’s a beautiful moment and it’s moments like that we’ll remember for the rest of our lives because it’s not every day those things happen.’
It’s fair to say one of the highlights of LadBaby’s career was collaborating with Sir Elton and Sheeran on Sausage Rolls For Everyone in 2021. Not only did they get a song out of the music icons, but Rox and Mark have managed to stay friends with the pair. LadBaby may not be releasing a single this year but they are still working with the Trussell Trust, having just released their latest Greg the Sausage Roll children’s book 12 Days of Christmas, while they have also teamed up with Pukka to release a Christmas Dinner Pie which, quite frankly, sounds like a dream. Of course, proceeds go towards the charity they have worked with for five years. The biggest misconception the couple want to set the record straight on (aside from Mark’s height – he’s a staggering 6ft8in) is that they were in it for the money all along. Bathurst has a string of theatre roles to his name, but he is the first to admit that Smoky Mountain Christmas Carol is a new challenge. “It’s unlike anything I’ve ever done before, and I really liked the idea of that,” he says of his first-ever musical role. So how much on-stage dance experience does Bathurst actually have? “Precisely nil,” he admits. “But that’s what I love about the whole project. It’s a completely left-field, exciting and odd thing for me to do.” It marks Bathurst’s first festive acting gig since the late 1970s, when he was studying law at Cambridge’s Pembroke College and appeared as Widow Twankey in a Footlights production of Aladdin. “I was also a shepherd at my convent school nativity in Ireland,” he adds. “But I remember feeling rather underemployed in that role”. We’re always in touch with Ed, he invited us to his show last year. I’m always messaging him asking, “Are you doing a Christmas song this year? Let me hear it!”’ Mark revealed.Scrooge rules that mine with an iron fist, as well as the general store – vividly rendered in Scott Davis’s timber-framed set. A moustachioed Robert Bathurst supplies a brusque capitalist-fanatic who considers charity to be “un-American”. Parton’s lyrics contain an accusatory line comparing his cold heart to an incoming blizzard, but otherwise she’s in devout mode, her gospel-tinged country songs (most written for the show) proclaiming Christmas a time for faith and family. That, in itself, feels like a radical act.
Not everyone has supported LadBaby’s chart success as they’ve been met with a host of criticism over the years, with some feeling that other charity singles or classic Christmas songs also deserved the number one. There’s always this false narrative that goes around that we’ve somehow taken this money from charity and it’s just not true,’ Mark stated.Rox also said: ‘That’s why it’s good to go for a charity because the amount of eyes they get on them – we meet the people whose lives it changes and it’s really important for charities to do that.’
Great Deal 
New Comment