Christmas at Mistletoe Farm: Yorkshire actor Scott Garnham stars in the Netflix festive movie from the people behind the Nativity! films

"It does feel a bit strange, “admits the father of one. “Not only did it go straight onto Netflix it went live in 40 countries which blows my mind a bit.”Garnham was offered the job after playing the lead role of Mr Maddens in Nativity! The Musical for two years alongside Rylan Clark, Danny Dyer and Sharon Osbourne. Debbie Isitt, who directed the Nativity movies, wanted him to play the part in Mistletoe Farm.

Garnham, 37, was born in Malton (James Norton hails form the same Yorkshire town) where his family still live, and attended Norton Community Primary School and later Norton College. He started acting at the age of seven when his parents were looking for something for him to do. "I had bad asthma as a child and so sports and things were difficult for me and then my parents enrolled me in Kirkham Henry Performing Arts,” recalls Garnham.

"I just loved acting – I remember it being the first time I had been excited and thinking is something I really want to do.” Initially it was just acting as he admits until his voice broke he really couldn’t sing.

When he was 12, he was cast in the original production of Honk! The Ugly Duckling directed by Julia McKenzie, at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough which won an Olivier Award for Best New Musical. He went on to train at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (formally the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama) where he gained a Masters degree and then headed down to London.

“It was hard to start with and I did a number of different things – I think it takes a bit of luck and lot of hard work.” And his hard work paid off when he landed a role in the West End.

"Once I got one West End role I seemed to be able to go from job to job.”

He has since played lead roles in Les Misérables, Billy Elliot, Made in Dagenham and Titanic. He performed in 25th Anniversary cast Les Miserables at the Queen’s Theatre in London’s West End. His performance was well-received by the audience, so much so that he was nominated for and subsequently won a BroadwayWorld UK Award in 2011. He was also chosen to appear in the company when Les Miserables celebrated 25 years at London’s O2 Arena, performing to more than 30,000 people in one day.

Internationally Garnham has performed all over the world with notable appearances on Broadway appearing in Jason and the Argonauts and the Make Believe Gala, at the St James Theater. Other international credits include performing in South Africa, Korea, New Zealand, Germany and appearing as the leading role of Edgar Beane in Titanic The Musical at the Princess of Wales Theatre, Toronto.

As well as performing internationally Garnham is a successful producer. His most successful creation to date is the international vocal group 'The Barricade Boys’ which he devised in 2014.

But despite his West End and theatrical success Garnham always hankered after an on-screen career. "I think my acting style is more suited to screen as I do internalise and am always being told to project to the back of the auditorium on stage.”

And so when he was offered the part in a new Netflix Christmas movie he jumped at the chance and loved the experience.

“I’ve fallen in love with screen work. The entire process is fascinating and I hope I get to do a lot more. Often stage actors get pigeon-holed, but with high-profile performers like Hannah Waddingham flying the flag for ‘musical theatre actors’ I hope that more of us will be able to diversify onto the big screen.”

And so far his screen debut seems to be going down well.

Since its global release on November 24 Christmas at Mistletoe farm has been released in 40 countries where it is in the top ten Netflix films and is number six in the United States. “And it’s not even Christmas yet,” says Garnham. “It’s a bit hard to get your head around a global release – I try not to think about it too much.

"It is a film that follows a familiar festive formula – there’s abut of Scrooge character but good wins the day. I play a father who has recently been widowed and then inherits a farm at Christmas time. My character makes a bumpy adjustment to village life - while my kids hatch a plan to stay there forever.

"There are a lot of larger than life characters, a great cast and its very funny, but at then end of the day a film has to have heart – if the central character doesn’t have that people won’t believe it in it.”So what about the old adage ‘never work with children and animals’?

“The children were incredible and brought an amazing energy to set – as was a bit of unpredictability and chaos. As for the animals… well they were in great hands as the animal handler from ‘Performing Pets’ always put their welfare first.” And being from the creators of Nativity, Garnham is sure it will be a Christmas hit. "Nativity was made 13 years ago and is still in the top ten films in the UK every year which is unbelievable really.”Garnham definitely has the screen bug, although he hasn’t closed the door on his theatre career, just put it on hold.

"I would love to do more screen work. I have a one year old daughter and working in the theatre – two shows a day isn’t very conducive to having a young family. I have my production company as well andwe were about to put on a production when Covid happened and it had to be pulled – we thought it would last for about six weeks – how wrong we were, but we are taking that to the theatre again soon.”

Garnham says he may be heading home to Yorkshire over Christmas where he has very fond memories.

One of Garnham’s favourite showbiz Christmas memories is an oldie but goodie. “I was cast as Santa in my primary school Christmas play when I was six,” he recalls.

“It was a huge deal as I was chosen out of everyone in Year 1 and 2. I’d made a white beard from cardboard and cotton wool then just before I was due to appear I was sick with nerves all over the beard. The teacher didn’t know what to do so she just painted my face with white poster paint from the craft corner and off I went on stage. Fortunately I didn’t have many lines… all I really remember was ‘Ho, ho, ho’.”

Christmas at Mistletoe Farm is on Netflix.