This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine.
Michael Sheen has just realised he’s got a problem. He can no longer enjoy his favourite weekday quiz show the way he used to. He and his partner Anna Lundberg had a routine when it came to House of Games. “We put the kids down to bed. They’re four and seven, and are usually asleep by 8.15pm. We come downstairs, put the TV on and watch House of Games on iPlayer. It’s going to be a very different experience watching it now.”
Sheen has only recently taken over from Richard Osman as presenter of the BBC Two celebrity panel quiz show, famous for its witty wordplay and quirky concepts (rounds have titles such as Flamingo, Potplant, Middlemarch and Is it Spaniel Craig?). He has recorded 100 episodes, which started airing at the beginning of October. And the thought of coming downstairs to watch himself instead of Osman doesn’t appeal to Sheen, not least because he’ll already know the answers. “I might just have to keep watching Richard Osman reruns and leave the new ones to everyone else.”
We meet at the House of Games studio in Salford’s MediaCity. Sheen has just done a day’s filming (they record the week’s five episodes in a day), and he looks very much at home in the iconic red tub armchair, which he’s still sitting in. As a presenter, he adopts Osman’s gentle manner, but gets a tad more animated when everything’s to play for. At 57, Sheen is shabbily handsome, with a lilt so serenely seductive it’s tempting to close your eyes and think of Wales when he’s talking.
As a quiz show buff, what does he see as the particular appeal of House of Games? “It’s comfort viewing in lots of ways. You can watch it and just relax. At the same time it’s got an edge to it because you are taking part; you play the games. And it’s really fun seeing people enjoying themselves. There’s always a nice camaraderie between the guests.”
Sheen is an unexpected choice for the job. After all, Hollywood stars aren’t famous for rushing to take over TV quiz shows. Sure, the likes of Stephen Fry, Bradley Walsh and Alexander Armstrong host quizzes, but they’re as famous as “personalities” as they are actors.
Sheen, though, has a rich and varied acting CV, as well known for playing real people with eerie accuracy (Brian Clough in The Damned United, David Frost in Frost/Nixon, Tony Blair in The Queen, Prince Andrew in A Very Royal Scandal, Chris Tarrant in Quiz) as for his roles in the Twilight and Underworld movie franchises.
He expects there to be a few snobs out there suggesting that he’s slumming it on a TV quiz show. “I think there was a stigma years ago about ‘serious actors’ doing what would be considered light entertainment shows. But if you have the good fortune to be offered those sorts of things, I don’t think you should let anything stand in your way.”
Sheen says the notion that doing light entertainment makes you unsuited to play a Shakespearian tragic hero is nonsense. Are there people who still think that? “There might be, but I don’t really care about them. Doing whatever, being on The Traitors or presenting House of Games is not going to take away from me being able to play King Lear. They are completely different things, and they draw on different parts of you.”
He says it was Sir Ian McKellen who made him reflect on the range of opportunities that were open to actors.
“I remember being really influenced by Ian McKellen. At a certain point in his career, he was like, ‘I want to do panto, I want to do Coronation Street.’ He was just doing whatever he wanted to do. To have the confidence to go, ‘I don’t care whatever anyone says about me, I’m going to do this and enjoy it’, I was really affected by that. I liked that.”
We’re going to see lots of Sheen as himself on TV over the next few weeks. Like House of Games, Celebrity Traitors started in the first week of October and at the time of our interview he was sworn to secrecy about it on pain of death. Don’t even mention the T-word, I’m warned by the publicist before the interview.
Then again, in recent years we’ve become increasingly used to seeing Sheen as Sheen. He was wonderfully open and engaging as the first guest of The Assembly, the interview show where a large group of autistic, neurodivergent, and learning-disabled individuals interrogate celebrities. He was a team leader on the Sky panel show There’s Something about Movies. And in August, he appeared in the hard-hitting documentary Buried, investigating the dumping of “forever chemicals” in Wales by Monsanto, leading to an apparent rise in cancers locally.
A couple of days after we meet, Sheen is due to give evidence to the Welsh Affairs Committee about the toxic dumping. He was effectively working as an investigative journalist when he made Buried? “Yeah, I guess so.” What does he want to come out of his reporting? “I want there to be more testing. There hasn’t been enough. So we don’t know what the dangers are. Councils are terrified that they will be made bankrupt if the answer comes out one way.”
He means if it’s proved that the chemicals, polychlorinated biphenyls, have damaged people’s health. “There needs to be a national or multinational programme to look into this and make sure that what needs to be done is done and that there is sufficient funding to carry out remediation without individual councils being held responsible.”
We shouldn’t be surprised by anything Sheen gets involved in these days. He has an extraordinary facility to pursue any number of passions simultaneously. In 2016, it was reported that he was giving up acting and leaving Hollywood to commit to political activism. It was partly true. He did leave Hollywood and returned home to Port Talbot where he grew up, and he did become an activist on a number of fronts. But he didn’t give up acting. Instead, he rebranded himself as a “not-for-profit actor”.
What did he mean by that? “I suppose I was trying to say that I was interested in being as supportive as I can of the social enterprise business model; the idea of using whatever profits you make to put back into the work you’re doing and to try to support other causes and organisations. Over the past 20 years I have used the money I make from acting or whatever, to support other issues or organisations. To start projects and programmes and initiatives.”
A few years ago, he put £250,000 of his own money into Mab Gwalia (Son of Wales), a charitable fund that supports veterans, local journalism, autism, mothers, drama and Oxford University scholarships for students from lower-income families, and also Street Football Wales, which put on the Homeless World Cup in Cardiff in 2019. I feel exhausted just typing all this, never mind overseeing it. And we’ve not even mentioned the Welsh National Theatre, which Sheen launched last year after the National Theatre Wales closed in 2024.
Does he still regard himself as a not-for-profit actor? He smiles. “I’m still paying for certain things that I put money into, so I guess that means I’m still a not-for-profit actor because I’m not making that much profit. When I was part of putting on the Homeless World Cup in Cardiff, I had two properties at the time and I remortgaged both of them so I’m still paying off that.”
Despite the initial stress, he says he found a way to make it work. “Even though I still had debts to pay, if I had money coming in and was smart about it I could still put money into things.” He pauses. “I’ve always been aware that there’s a window for that and eventually the maths won’t work out as well, so as less money comes in there’s less money that goes out.”
And the money that comes in from House of Games will be very handy. “It’s not just about money, though,” he stresses. “It’s also to do with profile. It’s more that than anything to be honest. The more familiar people are with you, the more willing they are to watch something that’s very different that I’m doing, or it opens doors, brings people together and makes things happen. So that is as important if not more important than the financial stuff.”
Producer, director, journalist, documentary-maker, community worker, project manager, TV presenter – he really is taking on a lot of different projects.
If someone asks what his job is, what does he say? “All of the above, I guess. I do all those things, so I’m not sure what I’d describe myself as.” He laughs. “I’m sure a few people have choice words to describe me, but I don’t know. I just do what I like doing and they all inform each other in a way.”
Many of his interests are intensely serious, so presumably one of the attractions of House of Games is that it’s pure fun? His face immediately lights up.
“Yeah, absolutely. The other things I do are fascinating and have lots of meaning in them for me, but they might not be quite as much fun. This is a fantastic thing to be able to do.”
Osman did House of Games for nine series. I ask Sheen if he thinks he’s in it for the long haul. Well, he says, he’s only signed up for one series. Would he like to do it longer? “I’d love to. I’d love to do it for as long as I can.” But he’s not counting his chickens. He admits he was terrified of following in Osman’s footsteps – not least because the show was so linked to him that it was called Richard Osman’s House of Games.
“Richard did an amazing job. He made it look so effortless. I used to joke and say I’ll make it my own by making it look really full of effort. It was so synonymous with Richard. The idea of taking over from someone who’s made it so much their own and had been so beloved by people was nerve-racking. So I was nervous, and still am – whether people will be comfortable and happy and accepting of me doing it. But I hope my love of the show comes through and that wins people over.”
A couple of years ago Sheen told me that as a young man he was absolutely focused on his acting, determined to become the best in the world. What does he think that young man would say to him today?
“I think he would be really happy at what I’m doing now. I think that version of me would be surprised at how many different things I do and really happy about that.”
Does he ever feel he’s spreading himself too thin with so many things on the go? He shakes his head. “No. I never feel it’s out of control. I feel very fortunate that I get to do as many different things as I do get to do. I have found a contentment in having so many outlets for my interests. Things that I’m passionate about. Part of happiness is feeling that you’re engaged and you’re doing something about the things that you care about.”
House of Games airs weekdays at 6pm on BBC Two and iPlayer.
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