Twenty-odd years ago, I binged a TV series on DVD for the first time. At my mate’s house in a village outside Harrogate, I was glued to Jack Bauer shooting his way through 24. We probably only made it to episode six before surrendering to sleep for school the next day.
Fast forward to the start of this year, and photos are all over the local news of Kiefer Sutherland out and about in nearby market towns Knaresborough and Wetherby. The real Jack Bauer in Yorkshire! He and Rebel Wilson are in the area making Tinsel Town, a British Christmas film about pantomimes. By March, I am invited to a Leeds studio, where they are filming, and find Sutherland dressed as Buttons on a stage. His glittery eyeshadow shimmers as he smiles and dances to Katy Perry’s Roar with the Cinderella cast. He repeats this showstopper scene about 15 times. It’s a surreal full circle moment; I half expect him to pull a pistol out on the ugly stepsisters.
Sutherland is in Paris when I explain the connection later. “That’s very funny,” the Canadian laughs down the phone. “I ended up loving it; Leeds is a fantastic city.” Locals might have spotted him on weekend walks around the university, or at the pub he filmed in. “They had regular customers in, and they were just being really nice.” He also continued his obsession with Greggs sausage rolls, which started on tour with his band – “it was like the heavens had opened up” – and arranged for the bakers’ van to visit the set. Does he have a gold card? “I did for one tour.
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