Jim Broadbent has said he “leapt” at the chance to appear on BBC Children in Need’s covers album – despite his limited singing experience.
The Oscar-winning actor appears on the record, called Got It Covered, singing the standard ballad Blue Moon by Rogers and Hart, previously covered by the likes of Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley.
Broadbent, 70, said it had been “thrilling” to re-enter the world of music after singing in films such as 2001’s Moulin Rouge! where he played the famous Parisian venue’s founder Harold Zidler, as well as across his nearly five-decade long career.
Olivia Colman, Helena Bonham Carter, Luke Evans, Suranne Jones, David Tennant, Himesh Patel, Adrian Lester, Shaun Dooley and Jodie Whittaker are among the actors-turned-singers who have handpicked a song significant to them for the record.
Broadbent said: “I sang a bit of the song once on TV. I think I vaguely mentioned when Shaun (Dooley) originally asked me that I had sung it and I’d forgotten.
“It was a lovely song so I leapt at it and it seemed to be exactly the right thing for me to have a go at.”
He added: “Swapping acting for singing, it’s all part of the same thing really. I thought it would be quite straightforward but actually it’s a different world once you get into the studio with the band there and actually having to get the song right.
“It is a whole new experience and it’s been thrilling, really. They are so clever all the guys and you get into the atmosphere of it completely.
“The fact that it is Abbey Road Studios is fantastic, so much history here. It’s the same as acting but it is slightly different, it’s a new experience and it’s great.”
The album also features Doctor Who’s Whittaker singing Yellow by Coldplay and Yesterday star Patel taking on All These Things That I’ve Done by The Killers.
An accompanying 90-minute film will follow the stars as they record at the famous Abbey Road and Rak studios to raise money for disadvantaged children and young people throughout the UK.
The documentary will also shine a light on projects funded by Children In Need.