News round-up: Harry Potter play, third visit to Oxford Union, plus a rare TV programme at the BFI

31 January 2017 18:52

'Madam Hooch' spotted at Harry Potter play!

Smash-hit play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child was even more magical than usual during its 14 January performance, thanks to the presence of everyone's favourite quidditch teacher in the audience!

Zoë also met the cast, as you can see from the great group photo shared on the spectacular West End show's Facebook page.

Guest speaker at prestigious Oxford Union

Zoë made her third appearance as a special guest at the Oxford Union, the prestigious debating society, on 24 January. She took part in an entertaining Q&A session, highlights of which were reported live on the Union's Twitter profile.

Harry Potter was again on Zoë's mind, as the discussion encompassed her role as eagle-like Madam Hooch in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (aka Sorcerer's Stone). Zoë emphasised that the film 'was exactly how I imagined it to be from the book'.

While she had 'great fun' making the Harry Potter movie, Zoë feels more comfortable on stage: 'for me, the theatre is my first love. It's more rigorous, it's more exciting, than film'. Stage shows should always strive to be 'inventive and exciting', she added.

Some excellent, expressive photos of Zoë were taken at the event, though no videos seem to have been published. If you'd like to find out more about Zoe's previous visits to the Oxford Union, you'll be pleased to know that there's a short video from her 2011 Q&A, and you can find images online from her first appearance in 2004.

Updated 9 February: The Oxford Union's Facebook page features a series of great photos of Zoë at the recent event. (Thank you, Karoline, for the link!)

Watch Zoë in The Eagle Has Landed

There's a treat in store for Zoë's fans during February: the BFI will screen The Eagle Has Landed (1973), in which Zoë made her fourth TV appearance. The darkly comic political drama, described by the BFI as '[a]n exuberant and wildly inventive satire on the Apollo Space Programme', features Zoë as hippy Alice. She and her family receive an unexpected visit from astronauts with a dangerous plan.

The Eagle Has Landed will be shown alongside another 1970s political drama, The Nearly Man, during the screening on 13 February at 6:20pm. Tickets to the event on London's South Bank – a rare chance to see one of Zoë's first TV roles – are available from the BFI.

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