Zoë chats about ‘one of the happiest experiences’ of her career, plus lots more news

8 March 2018 02:18

‘One of the happiest experiences’ of Zoë’s career

Here’s Zoë pictured with Toby Jones, her co-star in the West End revival of The Birthday Party, at the BBC Radio 2 studios last Saturday. You’ll find another photo of them on Radio 2’s website.

During a chat with presenter Paddy O’Connell, they explored the tension at the heart of Harold Pinter’s classic play, in which mysterious strangers arrive at a seaside boarding house. ‘I think there’s a danger about it,’ Zoë pointed out. Toby Jones agreed, emphasising that much of The Birthday Party’s humour comes from ‘the laughter of anxiety’.

The strangers encourage Zoë’s Meg, the ‘guileless’ landlady, to throw a party for her washed-up lodger Stanley (Jones), even though he’s adamant it’s not his birthday. Fun and games then take a cruel, unpredictable turn...

Although The Birthday Party is dark and disturbing, the atmosphere off-stage is, thankfully, more relaxed! In fact, Zoë described working on this five-star production as ‘one of the happiest experiences I’ve ever had’.

If you missed the radio show, don’t worry, as you can catch up on the BBC iPlayer for the next few weeks. (The interview begins about an hour and a half into the programme.)

There’s also just over a month left to catch The Birthday Party at London's Harold Pinter Theatre. It runs until 14 April, and some tickets are still available. The reviews have been fantastic!

Zoë lends her support to the LSN and Tree Aid

Zoë is backing Sock It to Lymphoedema, an annual campaign to increase awareness about this chronic condition affecting the lymphatic system, as well as raise funds for the Lymphoedema Support Network’s vital work.

Several other well-known supporters, including Judi Dench, are pictured on the LSN’s website wearing odd socks as part of the campaign.

In addition, Zoë is the narrator of an engaging new animation from Tree Aid, another charity of which she’s a patron. The video explains why trees can mean the difference between life and death in the drylands of Africa.

I think Tessa and her colleagues at SEED in Love Hurts would certainly approve of Tree Aid’s work, don’t you!

Zoë’s most memorable holidays

Zoë recently spoke to the Mail on Sunday about some of her most memorable holidays – including her honeymoon, when the hotel didn’t quite live up to its name...

‘My husband Gawn was working on a play in Wales at the time but had a day off, so we married in London and then caught the train back to the Majestic Hotel, where he was staying. On the train we had breakfast in a relatively plush cabin and when we got to the hotel we were given a bottle of champagne. They’d put out balloons, too. But our room was right by the car park. It was far from majestic.’

Unforgettable portrait of Queen Antedia

Feast your eyes on this stunning portrait of Zoë as the formidable Queen Antedia in Sky’s epic Britannia. It’s by Alberto Reyes Francos, an incredibly talented illustrator who produces jaw-dropping TV and film-themed images.

Website addresses

And finally, an update about this website: you can now get here via zoewanamaker.com or zoewanamaker.co.uk, whichever you prefer :-)

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Hear Zoë and Toby Jones chat about The Birthday Party's hit revival on BBC Radio 2

2 March 2018 23:08

Tune into BBC Radio 2 on 3 March to hear Zoë discussing The Birthday Party alongside her co-star Toby Jones. They'll be among the special guests on Graham Norton's popular show, which airs from 10am to 1pm. Presenter Paddy O'Connell will be standing-in for Norton.

The landmark 60th anniversary production of Pinter's darkly comic masterpiece has received glowing five-star reviews and is currently being performed in front of packed houses in the West End. It'll be fascinating to hear what Zoë and Toby Jones have to say about the endearing seaside landlady Meg and her washed-up lodger Stanley, the characters they've been playing to great acclaim for around two months now.

You can watch The Birthday Party at the Harold Pinter Theatre (appropriately enough!) in London until 14 April.

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Are you ready for Girlfriends’ five-star 'humdinger of a finale'?

7 February 2018 19:31

Tonight the sixth and final episode of Zoë’s compelling TV series Girlfriends airs in the UK (ITV1, 9pm – don’t miss it!), and if you’re anything like me, you’ll be brimming with questions. Will we find out the truth about Linda and missing Micky’s marriage (which clearly hit choppy waters long before the latter went overboard)? How many more revelations are in store? Can Gail’s friendship with Sue and Linda survive?

Whatever happens to the troubled trio and their loved ones, one thing is certain: Gail and her best friends’ make-or-break trip to Spain will have us all on the edge of our seats. The TV Times, which has given the episode a glowing five-star review, emphasises that ‘in this humdinger of a finale, the shocks keep on coming’!

Making waves in the media

Of course, Girlfriends is not only fascinating but also ground-breaking, thanks to its focus on women of a certain age, who are too often overlooked on TV. So, just how significant is the series, created and written by Kay Mellor? Significant enough to have been featured on ITV’s News at Ten, as well as making waves elsewhere in the media, in the run up to its TV debut on 3 January. And the level of interest from the media and viewers alike in Gail and her pals’ trials and tribulations remains high.

Now, with the show’s all-important conclusion less than two hours away, let’s take a look at some of the most notable press coverage Girlfriends has received over the past six weeks...

Speaking to the Jewish Chronicle, Zoë explains what attracted her to the part of struggling lollipop lady Gail: ‘It is a very different role for me [...] That’s the joy of it, to challenge yourself. I love doing something I haven’t done before.’ She emphasises that there are an increasing number of opportunities for mature actresses on TV, as ‘more people recognise that older women are viable and people want to watch them’.

Girlfriends is easy for many modern women to relate to, as Zoë points out in Woman&Home. ‘The stories in this show are ‘‘Everywoman’’ to some extent. Like all women, my character, Gail, is multitasking all the time – she has a lot of other people to look after and isn’t necessarily looking after herself.’ In Saga, she talks about getting into the role, commenting, ‘You are trying to find the element that connects you to that person, and I do feel [Gail’s] pain. She’s in an extraordinarily difficult situation.’

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Matthew Lewis (who plays Zoë’s wayward on-screen son Tom, having first worked with her on the original Harry Potter film) is full of praise for Zoë and her co-stars: ‘They’re all just so charming and so full of humility.’ He adds, ‘And Zoe straightaway was like, ‘‘I’ve been so looking forward to it. I was so thrilled when Kay told me you were taking this role.’’’ The casting inspired a memorable headline in the Metro, ‘Harry Potter fans are freaking out that Madam Hooch plays Neville Longbottom’s mum in Girlfriends’!

The Times calls Girlfriends ‘heartfelt, perceptive and brilliantly cast’. The series is ‘real and glorious and fun’, enthuses the Guardian. For the Observer, it’s ‘ITV’s first triumph of the year’, not least because of the trio of ‘winning, vulnerable, harried, hot-flushed and heel-breaking’ main characters (isn’t that a wonderful description!).

Authentic drama loved by viewers

The show’s popularity means that the hashtag #Girlfriends often trends on Twitter when episodes are broadcast, with viewers loving the story and performances.

Own a piece of TV history!

Earlier this week, Girlfriends’ production company, Rollem, gave fans in and around Leeds the chance to own clothes and accessories worn by Zoë and her castmates in a huge charity sale. The proceeds will benefit three worthy causes: Breast Cancer Haven, the NSPCC and Shelter. What’s more, Mellor will match the total raised.

UK DVD release and US run

While Girlfriends draws to a close in the UK today, we can look forward to every episode being released on a two-disc Region 2 DVD boxset on 26 February. (There's no word on DVD extras yet, so let's just keep our fingers crossed!) If you’d like to be in with the chance of winning a copy, check out the competitions from Female First, WhatCulture, London-Olios and Win Something.

Girlfriends has just begun its run in the US on streaming service Acorn TV and looks set to be a hit there too, with The New York Times, no less, drawing attention to it as a cultural highlight. And as US TV critic Ken Tucker points out in his Yahoo Entertainment review, ‘What could be more timely than a new show about female friendship and unity?’

With thanks to Karoline, Victoria and Janet for their help.

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Brand new look for the website to celebrate a momentous year

2 February 2018 23:01

If you've visited this website before, you'll no doubt have noticed that things are looking a little different round here today! The website has been given a fresh new look, courtesy of my brother Robert's design skills, in celebration of a momentous period for Zoë and her fans.

In the past few weeks or so, we've had the pleasure of watching Zoë act in three unforgettable TV dramas, Girlfriends, Britannia and Inside No. 9, as well as Harold Pinter's deliciously dark masterpiece The Birthday Party.

The new design aims to give the website, in my brother's words, 'a modern and professional look with clean lines, and a bold colour palette that invokes Zoë's striking performances'.

And let's hope we'll see many more of those this year and beyond!

With thanks to Robert for all of his hard work, as well as Zoë and her PA Vanessa for their feedback on the new design.

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Zoë's episode of cult hit Inside No. 9 comes to BBC2 on 30 January

26 January 2018 02:46

'And the Winner Is...', the episode of cult comedy-drama Inside No. 9 in which Zoë guest stars, will be broadcast on 30 January (BBC2, 10pm). The show finds Zoë's character Paula (pictured above) on the judging panel for a prestigious acting awards ceremony. 'Will it be the star, the dame, the girl-next-door or the ingenue? Only one of them can win. Join the jury in their deliberations for the Television Awards,' says the BBC in its tantalisingly brief summary.

If you've watched Inside No. 9 before, you'll know that an eye-catching, cinema-style poster is designed to accompany each episode. Here's the poster for 'And the Winner Is...', designed by Andy Bottomley and shared on Twitter by Reece Shearsmith, who created, writes and stars in Inside No. 9 alongside the equally multi-talented Steve Pemberton.

The clips released so far (one on YouTube and another on the BBC's website) suggest that the episode will be a real treat - satirical, funny and sharply observed.

As TV & Satellite Week explains, Paula is 'an old-school American actress [...] who has no idea who any of the nominees are'! Noel Clarke, who plays director Gordon, the judging panel's voice of reason, told the magazine, 'I've met quite a few people like Zoë's character - she's not so over the top, those people are out there!'

While there's tension between the judges, the atmosphere between the cast members during filming was much more relaxed. 'We were definitely laughing a lot,' Clarke emphasises. 'I'm sure they could do a good half-hour of outtakes with us cracking up. It was a fun few days for everyone in the room.'

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