'Lifelong fan' David Walliams to host a Shirley Bassey Christmas special on BBC1

David Walliams Celebrates Dame Shirley Bassey

(Image credit: BBC/King Bert/Mary McCartney)

David Walliams will host a special night to honour Dame Shirley Bassey on BBC1 this Christmas, ahead of her 80th birthday

The BBC has announced a special to celebrate Dame Shirley Bassey's 80th birthday this Christmas, to be hosted by her friend David Walliams.

David Walliams Celebrates Dame Shirley Bassey will be a night of entertainment, comedy, surprises, and will include performances by Dame Shirley accompanied by a live orchestra.

Dame Shirley said: "I'm excited to be recording a TV special alongside David Walliams and the BBC. This will mark two very special milestones for me – an occasion not to miss! We just need to work out how to fit a 60-year career into 60 minutes!"

David Walliams said: “As a lifelong fan of Dame Shirley I am thrilled to be making a television special with her. It really is a dream come true. Whenever Dame Shirley and I are together we laugh a great deal, so I am hoping this will be a hugely entertaining show.”

The one-off special, to be broadcast at Christmas ahead of her 80th birthday, will feature a lavish mix of entertainment, comedy, surprises and of course live music, with the Dame thrilling viewers as she performs some of her biggest and best-loved classics backed by a live studio orchestra.

Dame Shirley turns 80 on January 8.

Kate Phillips, Controller, BBC Entertainment Commissioning said: “Dame Shirley’s first BBC television special aired in 1970 and we’re thrilled to welcome her again for a truly fabulous night. With amazing stories, performances and a few surprises, the whole family is in for a treat with David and the Dame.”

Picture courtesy: Mary McCartney

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix.

An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.