【The Playbirds】

Disclaimer: this article will break your heart.

It was announced last week that Love Actually is getting a spring sequel -- 14 years later (because Christmas is The Playbirdsall around us even in March, eh?!).

The short film - also written and directed by Richard Curtis -- will reunite old cast members and catch up with their characters in 2017.

However, Emma Thompson won't be joining co-stars Hugh Grant, Bill Nighy, Liam Neeson, Martine McCutcheon, Colin Firth and Keira Knightley.

The reason is as simple as it is heart-breaking.

Her close friend and partner in the film Alan Rickman died last year and it would be too painful.

"Richard (Curtis) wrote to me and said, 'Darling we can't write anything for you because of Alan,'” Thompson told PA, “and I said, 'No of course, it would be sad, too sad'.

"It's too soon," she said. "It's absolutely right because it's supposed to be for Comic Relief, but there isn't much comic relief in the loss of our dear friend really only just over a year ago."

"We thought and thought but it just seemed wrong but to revisit the wonderful fun characters of Bill Nighy and Hugh Grant and Liam [Neeson] and all of that; that's fantastic but obviously what would he have done?"

"Both of them would be in therapy by now and I would be working on some kind of ward. It was absolutely the right decision."

Love Actually's sequel will be out just in time for Red Nose Day, a fundraising event to benefit children worldwide, as part of Comic Relief.

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