First image of Nick Frost as Hagrid in Harry Potter TV series released
Production of the new HBO TV show version of the popular fantasy novels is taking place at Warner Bros Studios Leavesden in Watford, Hertfordshire.
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On Tuesday, HBO released the image of Frost as Rubeus Hagrid, complete with long, wild mane of wavy brown hair and beard. He is wearing a long, dark green coat, with a dark green stripy shirt just visible underneath.
Frost, who is best known for British comedy films Hot Fuzz and Shaun Of The Dead, is playing the role of the friendly groundskeeper in the series, who was played by the late Scottish actor Robbie Coltrane in the films.
Arabella Stanton, Dominic McLaughlin and Alastair Stout who will play Hermione, Harry and Ron (Aidan Monaghan/HBO)
It comes after HBO announced yesterday that young actor Rory Wilmot will perform the role of Harry's school friend Neville Longbottom, while Amos Kitson has been cast as his cousin Dudley Dursley.
Meanwhile, Sherlock actress Louise Brealey is to play Hogwarts Quidditch coach Madam Rolanda Hooch, and Game Of Thrones star Anton Lesser will be wandmaker Garrick Ollivander.
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Those previously announced include award-winning US actor John Lithgow as Hogwarts headmaster Professor Albus Dumbledore, Welsh comedian and actor Paul Whitehouse as caretaker Argus Filch, and Rivals actress Katherine Parkinson as Molly Weasley.
Each season of the show will be a faithful adaptation of the Harry Potter books, from author and executive producer JK Rowling.
It follows the popular film adaptations that starred Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint as the protagonists.
The series is set to hit TV screens in 2027 on HBO and HBO Max.
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Daily Mail
25 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Taylor Swift pokes fun at Travis Kelce's brother Jason for obsessing over his 'beer' when he met Royal Family
Taylor Swift had a laugh at the expense of her boyfriend Travis Kelce 's brother Jason during her blockbuster appearance on their podcast New Heights on Wednesday. Nearly an hour into the podcast, the 35-year-old pop superstar spoke about how Travis made his on-stage debut with her for her Eras Tour shows at London's iconic Wembley Stadium. 'Wasn't this the week that I got to watch Jason meet the Royal Family?' Taylor recalled, before she and Travis, 35, proceeded to poke fun at Jason, 37, for his neurotic concerns about his demeanor before meeting them. The hitmaker ended up immortalizing the performances with selfies featuring Prince William — who was celebrating his birthday at the concerts — and his son Prince George and daughter Princess Charlotte. 'I knew you were serious when I was like, "Jason, do you want to go meet [them]?"' she continued, and Travis chimed in to narrate his older brother's reaction. 'He was like, "What do I do with my beer?"' the Kansas City Chiefs tight end said. Taylor played off her boyfriend, adding: 'I watched him have this moment with his beer where he's just like, "But I want to take it. But I know that I probably should not take it." 'I watched this happen and it was kind of the most amazing [thing],' she said with a laugh. Jason confirmed that Taylor was 'exactly' right about his tortured mental process at the time. 'If I don't have my beer, what do I do with this hand now? Or am I just, like, being authentic by having the beer? I would normally have the beer. Wouldn't they want me to be myself?' Taylor continued as she mocked Jason's mental back-and-forth. 'I'm watching you say that in your head,' she clarified, adding that it was a 'fantastic' show for her. 'I'll always remember that.' 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'If it would have been like an official meeting of royalty event, then it would have been that. 'But I did still address him as Your Royal Highness,' Jason added. Later, the conversation took a somber turn as Taylor shared a health update on her father Scott. The singer–songwriter told Travis and Jason that her father had an 'interesting summer' after undergoing an 'intense' quintuple bypass surgery. Later in the podcast, she also shared that her mother Andrea — who was diagnosed with cancer in 2015 and was later revealed in 2020 to have developed a brain tumor — had gotten her knee replaced recently. Taylor said it was a shock that her father needed such a major procedure, as she said he had had a 'perfect EKG' and 'healthy physicals' each year leading up to the surgery in July. The podcast aired live on Wednesday, shortly before Taylor delighted her fans by unveiling the artwork for her new album The Life Of A Showgirl, which she announced after midnight on Tuesday in an advance clip from the podcast. Scott's health was revealed to be far more dire than he or his family realized when he had a resting stress test this year, which revealed 'five hard blockages in his heart.' Taylor said that now her father tells all his friends to get the same resting stress test, 'because that's what's actually preventative.' Taylor added that people who learn that they're suffering from blockages earlier may be able to have less invasive stents put in. By contrast, bypass surgery usually takes the form of open-heart surgery, an extremely invasive procedure in which the breast bone can be cut in order to spread the ribs apart to access the heart, according to the Mayo Clinic. 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BBC News
25 minutes ago
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Dave Haslam headlines Stoke-on-Trent charity gig at Jollees
DJ Dave Haslam is preparing to play a charity gig in has previously played with acts including the Stone Roses and New Order, and is also credited as being an inspiration to the likes of the Chemical was resident DJ at The Hacienda and The Boardwalk in Manchester for years, and also appeared frequently at Golden in Hanley."It's big tunes, brilliant memories, and it's a charity night as well, of course. We're fundraising for a breast cancer charity called Fighting To Be Heard," he said of the gig at Jollees. He said Stoke-on-Trent was renowned for its nightlife in the 80s and 90s and that people had to go to nightclubs to hear the DJs of the era."It was the only place you could hear the tunes, and they were fantastic tunes. It was the first era of house music and techno, and it was a beautiful sense of community." 'Spirit of the era' Haslam said he tended to draw audiences of all said the older crowd enjoyed the nostalgia, while the younger members of the audience tended to enjoy the "very organic, very authentic" feel of an era where music was not as heavily charity was co-founded by one of Haslam's friends, Kate Rackham, who died at the age of charity helps people to cope with incurable secondary breast had done a number of charity events while she was alive, he said, and her husband is from Stoke-on-Trent."For me, it was in the spirit of the era to do something for charity like this, in memory of Kate and to raise money for the good work the charity continues to do."The Classic Memories night takes place at Jollees on Saturday. Follow BBC Stoke & Staffordshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
‘I knew my job was to fulfil a man's fantasy': Elizabeth McGovern on Downton, early fame and co-starring with Brad Pitt
For the maudlin among us, the final Downton Abbey film should perhaps come with a warning. Everything in it is tinged with wistfulness – a goodbye to cherished characters and a farewell to a stately home that was a sturdy presence in a transient world. When the ITV series started in 2010, wasn't life … better? Did Elizabeth McGovern feel this too, the sense of time passing? After all, her character, Cora, is now ageing out of custodianship of Downton along with her husband, Lord Grantham, in favour of a younger generation and a changing era as the 1930s dawn. 'No!' says McGovern, snapping me out of my melancholy. 'I feel very excited that I'm going into a gratifying new phase in my career.' As well as reviving Cora, there is the play she has written, Ava: The Secret Conversations. Starring McGovern as Hollywood actor Ava Gardner, it will run in New York, Chicago and Toronto, having made its debut in London in 2022. There is also a new album of her folk-inspired music. 'I feel like I'm just beginning,' she declares as we meet at her publicist's London office. At first glance, McGovern, fine-boned and composed, seems delicate – but if you only go on first impressions, you'll miss her rebellious spirit. Not that making Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale wasn't emotional. 'You don't have to work very hard, as a film-maker, to touch on that depth, because we've been working on it for so many years,' she says. McGovern worried that the absence of Maggie Smith – who died last year after giving the show the brilliantly scathing Dowager Countess – would feel like too big a loss to the Downton world. But she says Smith's presence 'permeates' it. 'She's still very much in the atmosphere. I don't feel there's a big hole. In fact, in some ways, it sort of freed up the rest of the narrative to have a flow, because it's not stopping for her moments. But everything she represents is there. She's in every room, in every interaction, so it's not like she's not there. It's a weird thing.' The women of Downton, whether the steely Lady Mary or spirited young cook Daisy, are gratifyingly tough, but Cora, usually quietly supportive in the background, never seemed that robust, even though it was her money – as an American heiress – that was running everything. Was that difficult to play? 'At times, yes,' says McGovern. 'I think as a contemporary woman, it is hard to feel the straitjacket of that period.' Did she ever fight for Cora to have more agency? 'I wish at times she could have had more interesting stories,' says McGovern, but adds that it wouldn't have been appropriate for her to have had 'any more political or social power, because it just wouldn't be accurate to the time'. Cora, though, is a vision of an exciting America; the daughter of a Jewish immigrant installed at Downton with her bags of new money and her progressive outlook. Were Downton set now, instead of Cora coming here to shake up Britain's class-ridden ways, she would be a wealthy liberal refugee, a bit like Ellen DeGeneres, fleeing Trump's America. McGovern, who grew up in California, has lived in the UK for the past 32 years. She is shocked and disappointed at modern US politics. 'I mean,' she says, 'it's a reality that must have been bubbling away under what I thought was America. It can't have come from nowhere.' But, describing herself as a positive person, she adds: 'I think it will be painful, but we have too much successful history as a free country for us to let it go. It's all of our responsibility to peacefully make sure we hold on to everything that I was confident – and complacent about – that America represented.' McGovern had huge success early on. Her debut was in Robert Redford's 1980 film Ordinary People, and she won an Oscar nomination for her role in her second film, Ragtime. This was followed by a part in Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in America, opposite Robert de Niro. 'I think I did feel like, 'Gosh, this isn't as hard as people say.'' She smiles. 'Until I later experienced how difficult it is. My experience early on was just trying to keep my head on straight, do job after job, and do what most people are doing at that age – try to grow up. I only realised later how difficult it is to sustain a career.' Hers wasn't a showbiz family: her parents were teachers. And although she has loved acting since she was a child, it was never about becoming a star. As a young woman in an often dangerous industry, this probably protected her. 'I was never desperate, so I could always just walk away. A lot of young women didn't feel they could. I think I was very lucky.' It also made her see the downsides of fame. 'I think I did manage to avoid it myself, but the price you pay for fame is that it becomes really hard to have any relationships of intimacy, because you are collateral. Your whole being has sort of been sold, and that creates a tension about what people want from you.' A lot of McGovern's early roles were as the girlfriend to the male lead. Then, she says: 'I went from being the girlfriend to the perfect wife, and that I found frustrating. Most movies, television – it's always the man's point of view. It's such a deep, subliminal thing that audiences are not even aware of it. I wasn't even particularly aware of it. I knew my job early on was to fulfil a man's fantasy of the woman they wanted. It never occurred to me to even question it.' Brad Pitt played McGovern's boyfriend in the 1994 comedy The Favor. We joke – bitterly – that were she to be in a film with him now, she would probably be cast as his mother. This says a lot about what's still considered desirable in a woman even though, at 64, McGovern is only three years Pitt's senior. 'I really don't think that, just because society is viewing something that way, we have to. I try to have this discussion with my daughters. We can have a feeling independent of the consensus in society. I've just done my own thing and just kept doing it.' She bristles, not unreasonably, when I point out that her embracing her silver hair seems rare in her business. Was that a political decision? 'Not really. But once again, I feel like a woman my age – that's what we're asked to talk about. I regret that about society.' There is something bracing about the way McGovern carves her own path. She left Hollywood and moved to London to start a family; she has two grownup daughters with her husband, the film-maker and producer Simon Curtis (who directed The Grand Finale). Approaching her 40s, she started a band, Sadie and the Hotheads, and started releasing music. 'I have to remind myself,' she says, 'that people will either like it or they won't – and whatever they feel is fine with me. It's about doing it.' In her 50s, she wrote her play about Gardner, drawn to the actor's independent spirit. Now in her 60s, she is writing a screenplay, although she won't say what it's about. 'It's my next obsession. I really want to write stuff. I'm really excited about that.' Doing so is partly a way to create interesting work for herself as an older actor. There has certainly been plenty of talk about this – does she think the situation has improved? 'Not that I've noticed.' She loved the recent show Dying for Sex, in which Michelle Williams plays a terminally ill woman in her 40s who embarks on a last attempt at sexual exploration. 'It's such a female story. I found that to be really encouraging, but it's not going to be about someone my age.' Why? Is it because society considers the thought of older women having a sex life shocking? 'I think possibly, yes. I mean, what can we do as women, except just keep going and not buy into it? We have no other choice.' If it takes a bit of effort, the pay-off is surely worth it – if McGovern and her outlook are anything to go by. 'It's a daily exercise in getting your head tuned into the right thing. It's not that I blame anyone for accepting the status quo, but it doesn't mean I have to. No way.' She laughs. 'No way.' Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale is out on 11 September in Australia, and 12 September in the UK and US. Ava: The Secret Conversations is at New York City Center until 14 September.
