The Hothouse - Trafalgar Studios

Fresh from his success at the TV BAFTAs last weekend, Simon Russell Beale leads the cast in a revival of Harold Pinter's dark comedy 'The Hothouse' at London's Trafalgar Studios.

Here he stars as Roote, the flustered head of an unnamed institution, who finds himself with both a birth and a death on his hands on Christmas Day.

'Life On Mars' star John Simm co-stars as the menacing Gibbs, who relishes in Roote's growing anxiety as the situation begins to spiral out of control.

The play's bleaker moments are punctuated with plenty of uneasy laughs and the strong cast also includes Harry Melling, who will be familiar to fans of the Harry Potter movies.

'The Hothouse' is the second in the Trafalgar Transformed season following James MacAvoy's star turn in 'Macbeth'.

Director Jamie Lloyd's ingenious staging means that a select number of audience members get to witness the whole thing from the stage itself. Though that's possibly not the best place to be when the Christmas cake makes an

We're huge fans of 'Scott And Bailey's Suranne Jones so we couldn't wait to see her back on stage in 'Beautiful Thing' at London's Arts Theatre.

Suranne Jones and Jake Davies

The play, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary, is described as an 'urban love story' and follows two teenage boys who fall in love on a council estate during a very hot summer in the early '90s.

Jones is brilliant as feisty single mum Sandra, particularly in her ongoing feud with Mama Cass-obsessed next door neighbour Leah (played by 'Waterloo Road's Zaraah Abrahams), firing off some fantastic putdowns that are much too rude to write about here.

Young actors Jake Davies and Danny-Boy Hatchard give sensitive portrayals as Jamie and Ste, while 'Hollyoaks' star Oliver Farnworth provides comic relief as Sandra's hippy lover Tony.

There are some excellent one-liners here, which is no surprise as playwright Jonathan Harvey also brought us BBC sitcom 'Gimme Gimme Gimme' and is best known these days as a regular writer on 'Coronation Street' (he

'Emmerdale' goes live on Wednesday 17 October at 7pm with a special hour-long episode to mark the show's 40th anniversary.

Various cast members have already spoken about the challenges of filming such a complex episode with actors having to dash between sets and bad weather potentially throwing a great big spanner in the works.

ITV are offering fans the opportunity to see exactly that with a specially-placed cameras capturing the possible 'chaos' going on behind-the-scenes.

You can see for yourself by watching below:

It's a tough week for Izzy and Gary in 'Coronation Street', plus find out what's coming up in 'EastEnders', 'Emmerdale', 'Hollyoaks', 'Neighbours' and 'Home And Away' in our soaps preview...

Comedy actresses Tamsin Greig and Doon Mackichan have revealed their favourite comedy roles.

Speaking exclusively to Yahoo! TV, Tamsin Greig immediately exclaimed that her favourite sketch features current co-star Doon Mackichan, while the 'Smack The Pony' star picked a moment from 'The Day Today'.

[Related story: TV star Doon Mackichan's bizarre inspiration for new character]

Watch the video below:

Greig chose the "woman at a desk who ate a whole donut" who featured in 'Smack The Pony' as it was "so unbearably funny".

Meanwhile, Doon revealed her favourite role that she played was a Northern woman in a ridiculous team building exercise in hit TV show 'The Day Today' and talks about how she can be seen laughing in the scene.

The pair star in the West End production 'Jumpy'. The show is a frank and funny family drama about a pair of 50-year-old women struggling with maturity and a promiscuous daughter.

The production will run until November at the Duke Of York's Theatre, St Martin's

Celebrated TV star Doon Mackichan has revealed the bizarre inspiration for her new role in West End production, 'Jumpy'.

The 'Smack The Pony' and 'The Day Today' actress told Yahoo! TV that a Sunday supplement called 'Fetish Weekends In Kent' and a dancing horse inspired her latest character.

[Related story: TV comedy actresses reveal favourite roles]

Watch Doon Mackichan explain in the video below:

Doon Mackichan stars alongside Tamsin Greig in 'Jumpy'. The show is a frank and funny family drama about a pair of 50-year-old women struggling with maturity and a promiscuous daughter.

The production will run until November at the Duke Of York's Theatre, St Martin's Lane, London.

Tyrone lashes out in 'Coronation Street', Shirley makes a life decision in 'EastEnders' and Chas starts to flirt with Dan in 'Emmerdale'. Plus, find out what's coming up in 'Hollyoaks', 'Neighbours' and 'Home And Away'...

Plus, read the rest of this week's soaps news

Kirsty walks in on Tyrone as Tina quizzes him about his mysterious bruises in 'Coronation Street', Lauren reveals the truth behind Ian's disappearance in 'EastEnders' and David confesses that his wedding was fake in 'Emmerdale'. Plus, find out what's coming up in 'Hollyoaks', 'Home & Away' and 'Neighbours'.

Watch our soaps preview video:

Plus, check out the rest of this weeks' soaps news