The Sound of Music Live! ITV to broadcast live version of the classic musical this Christmas

TVs across the UK will be alive to the sound of music this Christmas following ITV's announcement that it will broadcast The Sound of Music Live! over the festive period.

The two-hour dramatisation of the much-adored 1965 Rogers and Hammerstein film, which starred Julie Andrews as a nun who becomes governess to the musical Von Trapp family in 1938 pre-war Austria.

It will also be the first time a musical has been broadcast live on national television.

ITV's version will star Julian Ovendon as Captain von Trapp, Kara Tointon as Maria, and Alexander Armstrong as Max Detweiler and will include all of the songs from the classic film.

ITV’s Director of Entertainment and Comedy Elaine Bedell said :

The Sound of Music made its theatre debut on Broadway in 1959 and the 1965 film adaptation, the last musical written by Rodgers and Hammerstein, won five Academy awards.