Nadine Baggott, health and beauty editor at HELLO! magazine, has launched her new website at nadinebaggott.com in addition to a new YouTube channelThe Beauty Know It All.
Nadine has been a health and beauty journalist for 25 years and also contributes to television programmes including ITV’s Lorraine, The Titchmarsh Show, the BBC’s The Clothes Show and Vanessa and The Club, as well as being This Morning’s Beauty Presenter for over fifteen years.
Nadine would like to hear from beauty brands & PRs so they can work together to give informative, expert beauty advice for women over forty on YouTube.
It’s following in the footsteps of the great Scandinavian television – it’s very much revered. It’s about how the Norwegians stopped Hitler from building a nuclear weapon by the production of heavy water. They sabotaged the factory that produced something called heavy water that had the potential of creating a German atomic bomb. It should be a very, very well-known story but it’s not.
You play Julie Smith, how would you describe her? What attracted you to the role?
After getting the script I flew to Norway and met with the writer. The fact that it was a Danish German British and Norwegian production was just incredible. It’s an incredibly different process to ours – it’s amazing what they do.
I play a fictional character and the only girl who’s surrounded by men, so we knew she had to have a lot of guts and strength. I really admired that it’s an alternative take on a love story too, with Leif Tronstad (played by Espen Klouman-Høiner) the fact they never get together is really heart-breaking.
The director uses music very cleverly in his work and I think it’s really emotive to the character. It showed a very gentler side to a hard exterior.
What was it like being part of such an international co-production, and with lots of different languages spoken amongst the cast?
I’ve always wanted to go to Norway, to see the Northern lights – it’s one of my dreams – and I just thought the cast was incredible. In literally a green room full of men I was the only woman, I often find myself in that situation – I must be a boyish girl at heart! But they were great, I joined in with all their banter and they were so welcoming.
Were you familiar with the story before taking on the role and did you do any research on this period in history to prepare?
I wasn’t aware of the story but I did some research, read books about the team that went on the journey and I am familiar with the time – I think this is my third job that’s set in the 1940’s.
As the series is based on an important moment in history, were you anxious about taking on the role at all?
You’re anxious when you take on any job but I knew that I was in incredibly capable hands. They got the top actors from other countries and I really love now that they’re mixing the British actors with the Danish and the American actors with the British and that we’re all becoming a bit more international. They all have very different approaches and I’ve been in the industry now since I was sixteen years old, I Iove learning from other cultures and from different actors’ approaches.
Was there training involved before filming? Did you have to do any stunts?
I didn’t really do any stunts but getting into that uniform was sort of like one! There is a scene where I use a gun and have to hit every target so there was some training for that. Weirdly enough my last few jobs have been military and my next job is also military.
What was the shoot like, did it take you to any interesting locations?
Norway and Prague doubled for Scotland, our base, and the huge factory. So I think if you added it all up I’ve spent a year and a half of my life there – Gracie (my daughter) has spent 6 months of her life in Prague so I knew it very well. Our director of photography was absolutely incredible, a real genius.
What’s your favourite memory from the set?
It’s probably when we used something called an opticopter, which is like a drone. They all had this toy for the first time and it has a little camera so it could fly up and do these big sweeping shots. I remember about 4 or 5 years ago you’d have to get a huge crane out to film scenery like that and it was very time consuming but that day everyone was so excited despite it being freezing cold!
The Saboteurs starts on Friday 19th June at 9pm on More4
Lingerie, swimwear and nightwear brand Boux Avenue and business owner Theo Paphitis, celebrated their Summer Launch in style last week at the Haymarket Hotel in Mayfair. Celebrities including Vogue Williams, Ola Jordan, Rebecca Ferguson and many more enjoyed ‘Boux on the Beach’ cocktails by the beautiful candle lit pool, whilst listening to summer beats by DJs Charlotte De Carle and Becca Dudley.
The brand’s gorgeous summer collection was showcased at the party, which included their beautiful swimwear collection featuring key trends for the season including neon tones, cutesy florals and beach-ready tropical prints plus cover ups to match.
Guests were also treated to an exclusive preview of the brands new Summer TV ad, which is set to be aired this April.
Celebrity guests included Chloe Lewis, Lauren Goodger, ex Big Brother’s Bit On Side presenter AJ Odudu, Lilah Parsons, Ashley James, Rebecca Ferguson and Brian McFadden’s wife, Vogue Williams,
Made In Chelsea’s Ollie Locke arrived with girlfriend Catherine Louise Radford.
Charlotte de Carle, Lizzie Cundy, Hatty Keane and Scottish R&B singer Tallia Storm looked thrilled with their Boux Avenue gift bags.
So, what can we expect from Boux Avenue this spring and summer?
From flattering tankinis to stylish kaftans, head off
to your dream destination with the latest styles from
the Boux Avenue swimwear collection. Their bikinis are holiday
must-haves, from halter necks and multiways to
bandeaus in prints that sizzle, you’re sure to be spoilt
for choice. Their cup-sized bikinis in 32A-40G (B cups
start with 28 underbands), and many DD+ swimwear
styles will have you dreaming of the beach in no time.
About Boux Avenue…
Boux Avenue is a sparkling new lingerie brand that you can find online and at 24 stores across the country.
Born out of a love for lingerie, nightwear, swimwear and all things romantic, with a desire to bring traditional service, superior fit and outstanding quality to a modern and beautiful setting, Boux Avenue is a luxurious shopping haven.
With an unrivalled eye for detail, passion for gorgeousness and design flair that will bring romance, seduction and a little slice of style to your boudoir, Boux Avenue aims to make love happen with an aspirational blend of nostalgic and contemporary design.
Boux Avenue is inclusive and for everybody, no matter what your age, size or style, creating irresistible lingerie and nightwear that will compel the desire to look, touch, feel and of course, wear.
Housed in a smart Regency building, this ritzy boutique hotel puts you in the heart of London’s theatre-land. It’s a 5-minute walk to Charing Cross or Piccadilly Circus, giving you a choice of Tube lines. The flagship stores along Regent Street are all within a mile. Art on your doorstep
You’ll be just a few blocks from the National Gallery at Trafalgar Square, and a 15-minute stroll from both the Royal Academy and the Courtauld Gallery. Need a rest? Rent a deck chair at nearby St James’s Park. Making an impression
Guests at Haymarket Hotel rave about pretty much everything, from the staff and impeccable 24-hour room service to the chic fabrics and furniture. You can enjoy a drink by the glamorous pool, from the library’s honor bar, or in trendy Brumus Bar & Restaurant. Comfy beds and linens
Rooms and suites are stylish, spacious, and quiet (windows are double glazed). Guests love the comfy beds, Frette linens, and bespoke Miller Harris toiletries. On the entertainment front, you’ll have free WiFi, a flat-screen LCD TV, an iPod dock, and a DVD/CD player.
“You can do good. Or you can do well. Sooner or later they make you choose…” Here it is, the brand new trailer for Spooks: The Greater Good, starring Kit Harington and Peter Firth – in cinemas 8th May 2015.
This Saturday night (14 March) sees More4 dedicate its schedule to some out-of-this-world programming for Aliens Night. In an all new one-off documentary airing first on More4’s Alien Night, comedian and presenter Dan Schreiber has gone in search of some of the Britons who believe in a huge government cover-up of extra-terrestrial life.
The Great UFO Conspiracy will air Saturday 14 March at 9:05pm on More4.
You’ve made a film, The Great UFO Conspiracy – what’s it all about?
It’s looking at the phenomena of conspiracy theories to do with aliens UFOS. Most of the time, when you think about that stuff, you think of the USA, of Area 51 and Roswell and so on. It all seems to be America-based. But actually, Britain has a huge role in the constant stream of theories of what’s going on. And this country has some of the largest ever encounters that are acknowledged worldwide by the community. So I wanted to find out more about the people who are leading the front, who think there’s something more going on.
Is this an area you’ve been interested in in the past?
Yeah, I’m interested in it in a slightly lateral, leftfield kind of way. I love the storytelling. I love the way the theories are put together. I see it as a type of storytelling that nobody really acknowledges. It’s a group of people looking at a thing and coming up with an alternative story and timeline for. And they all contribute to it, worldwide. And it adds to this bigger story, this growing, creative idea. The difference between them and me is that they believe it to be true, whereas I don’t. But I don’t think that should step in the way of admiring what’s a great story.
How much of this did you know before you embarked on your journey? Did what you encountered surprise you?
Oh, I was totally surprised. My background is in making sure that I know virtually everything about a subject before I get involved with it. That’s from a background of working on shows like QI. But on this show, the production team didn’t want me to find out anything beforehand. They wanted me to be put into the situation and learn on the spot. So I did go in thinking I’d know the majority of the theories, but there are so many of them, you just can’t get a handle on them. And also, all the theories that I thought were dead, like crop circles, are now alive again, and being reinterpreted. For example, we know they were created as a prank, but now the theory is that the pranksters were actually having their actions controlled by aliens. I love it that you can’t seem to kill a conspiracy theory – it will find a new way to live.
Almost by definition, these are people who are very suspicious of the motives of others, especially establishment organisations like broadcasters. Was it difficult to get them to trust you?
It’s a really odd one. They all seem to hate the BBC with a total passion, They think everyone’s involved. But this thing has grown so big, as an industry, that people are making their living off the back of talking about these theories or writing books about them. There’s so much money now being made that you can live your life by these theories. So they have to co-operate with the devil, because they know they can get more exposure for a talk that they’re going to do, or a book that they’re going to do.
What did you think if the people you spoke to?
I really liked them all, and found them really interesting. And one thing that struck me was that when we weren’t talking about UFO stuff, they’re all really chatty, nice, friendly, likeable people, who liked a laugh and liked to talk about football. One of them, a guy called Tony, very openly says that the last few years of his life have been absolute hell, he’s gone through various things. We didn’t go into what that was – I imagine depression was involved – so they’re not all completely rounded, happy, optimistic people. But if you’re sitting in a pub and start talking about acting or movies, they’re all interested in talking about that stuff.
Some of these guys seemed a convinced the authorities were after them. Do you think any of them were genuinely scared for their safety?
Tony says that he is, or certainly that he was. I spoke to a guy called Timothy Good, he struck me as someone who was just reporting facts, very much in control. He didn’t seem scared at all. Some of them I found it hard to tell. I didn’t know where the jokes stopped and the beliefs began. So this guy Miles was an example. If we were meant to be meeting someone, and they’d be running late, and you’d receive two of the same text, he’d say “When you get two, it means the government are watching you, and that’s why she had to disappear.” And then you’d wonder if he actually believed that, or was just winding me up.
Where do these ideas germinate from?
That’s a good question. I went to a conference, and everyone was doing these talks, and I had a weird feeling. I do stand up comedy, and half the time you’re trying out new material to see how it’s received, and at this conference, it felt the same. People were standing up and offering new theories and new connections they’d made, and sussing it out with the crowd. It felt like a new material night for theories. But I think that these theories just seem to pop up out of nowhere.
You don’t try to debunk these theories. Why did you adopt that approach?
That wasn’t the focus of the show for me. None of us wanted to make something that was laughing at these people. It was more a matter of going “Look, this is an actual thing that’s happening, and millions of people around the world believe in it,” and if you’re at a dinner party and you’re sitting next to one of these people, you can either say that they’re mad, or dangerous, or idiots, or you could have a good conversation with them. I’m more interested in just hearing from them what they think is going on and why. If you see a documentary with Richard Dawkins, you don’t have time to understand what the religious person thinks, because Dawkins is shouting them down. That’s in no way productive for a conversation.
What are your own theories about extra-terrestrials?
I think that there’s alien life out there. I almost think it would be weird to think that there wasn’t, the Universe being what it is. I just don’t think that we’ve necessarily been visited yet. All they’ve done is gone one step further, and then added a whole conspiracy side to it, with the government being involved.
Lastly, I can’t let you go without asking you, after all those years of working on QI, what’s your favourite fact?
Let’s see. Oh, there’s a great one which always makes me laugh. You know the DVDs you get with the anti-piracy bit with the dramatic music at the beginning? It turns out they didn’t have the permission to use that song. The guy sued them and got money. That’s so wonderful. The other one I really like, which is from one of the QI books, is that in 1895, the only two cars in Ohio crashed into each other.
For many years Britain has enjoyed something of an unparalleled reputation amongst global audiences for its hit comedies.
And with the global marketplace being ever more important to TV providers with the advent of new technologies, we thought we’d take a look back at some of the UK’s best comedies to see how they’ve succeeded.
The Goon Show
For many, The Goon Show set the ball rolling in terms of British comedy. Although it only featured on BBC Radio, it launched the careers of Peter Sellers, Harry Secombe and Spike Milligan as well as dozens of popular catchphrases that resonate to this very day.
Monty Python
And then in late sixties, six highly creative and chaotic individuals revolutionised comedy with Monty Python’s Flying Circus. The show lasted well over a decade and spawned many critically acclaimed films and is considered one of our national treasures.
The Young Ones
Borrowing some of Monty Python’s surreal humour and injecting it with a great deal of anarchism was the Young Ones. Starring Adrian Edmondson, Rik Mayall, Nigel Planer and Christopher Ryan, it signalled a new dawn for alternative comedy and ushered in a whole new wave of national moral panic!
Blackadder
Another classic comedy that capitalised on the new wave of alternative comedy stars was Blackadder that launched the careers of Rowan Atkinson, Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie and Tony Robinson. Ingeniously setting the show over different historical periods allowed the show’s subversive humour to blossom to great effect.
Only Fools and Horses
One of the nation’s favourite comedies has to be Only Fools and Horses that saw the hapless Delboy and Rodney in their eternal struggle to be millionaires. Although the pair never fully managed to make their fortune, they still regularly return for Christmas specials.
Little Britain
Signalling a new wave of comedic talent for the 21st century, Little Britain relied on an old-school sketch show format with catchphrases and instantly recognisable characters. But what really propelled this show to legendary status were the talents of Matt Lucas and David Walliams, and Little Britain has become so popular that it now has its own slot game where players can win impressive bonuses whilst being mocked by their favourite Little Britain characters!
Father Ted
And finally, one of the most unlikely recent success stories is that of Father Ted. This classic series saw three priests on the remote Craggy Island survive a series of surreal and hilarious mishaps that perfectly sums up the eccentricities of living a somewhat backwards parochial life!
The brief was to get myself to Trafalgar Square at 11:45 on Friday 27th February, find the 8’ high teapot and share a cup of Rosie Lee with former Dragon’s Den star, Theo Paphitis and some of his celebrity friends, all in the name of Comic Relief’s bi-annual Red Nose Day being held on Friday 13th March 2015.
On what was possibly the warmest day of the year so far, a crowd gathered, donning red noses, handed out by a pair of bananas… well, two bubbly members of Ryman staff dressed as bananas, mingling and giggling in the bright sunshine – I lost count of the number of selfies that were being taken around me, celebrities and the public posing together, all in the name of the Comic Relief charity. Matt Cardle, Lauren Goodger, Jake Wood, Helen Lederer, Nick Moran and Paul Bradley graciously took time out to raise awareness for Comic Relief and Red Nose Day 2015. Theo brought along the Boux Avenue Range Rover, all blinged-up, surrounded by a bevvy of TOWIE fans just itching to lick the bonnet.
Born-organiser and self-confessed shopkeeper,Theo Paphitis, shepherded his celebrity friends and warmly invited the public to grab a cup of tea (courtesy of PG Tips, served by www.coopersbeansandleaves.com from their quirky little three wheeled mobile coffee van) and chat … and chat we did.
Jake Wood (aka Max Branning – EastEnders) told me about his time on Strictly Come Dancing – a sharp learning curve when you’ve never danced before, but under the wing of professional dancer, Janette Manrara, Jake proved that he has a natural talent for Ballroom and Latin dancing – borne out through many spectacular hip-gyrating Salsas and Rumbas, taking him through to the nail-biting #SCD semi-finals. Jake explained to me that he is now mentoring Anna Kennedy, a mother from Uxbridge who set up schools and support for people with Autistic Spectrum Disorders and will be a contestant on a very special edition of the hit BBC series Strictly Come Dancing.
Mrs Kennedy, 54, set up Hillingdon Manor School in Harlington Road in 1999 after struggling to find suitable education for her two autistic sons and will partner Robin Windsor on the BBC 1 show, mentored by Jake and Janette. Anna, who has received an OBE for services to special needs education, will be one of six ‘everyday heroes’ taking part in The People’s Strictly for Comic Relief. The five-part series will see all the regular Strictly faces, including judges Anton du Beke, Darcey Bussell, Bruno Tonioli and Len Goodman, and hosts Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman.
Jake paid tribute to the BBC, explaining the behind-the-scenes activities that go into putting a series together, along with intense training and the rush of adrenaline when performing, the format is unlike any other. I asked if he is going to continue dancing and he answered “My children loved seeing me dance in Strictly and I think they’d have something to say if I stopped now!”
When the kettle came off the boil and the teapot ran dry, we moved inside to the Trafalgar Hotel where I sat down with Theo Paphitis, Chairman of Ryman, Chairman and Owner of Robert Dyas and Boux Avenue, also sitting on the Commercial and Technology board for Comic Relief.
CDTT: Thank you for the interview, Theo! So, tell me, how did #TeaWithTheo come about?
TP: Well, I’m a director of Comic Relief, for a start, I’ve been involved with them for many years, I’ve been to many of the projects around the world that we fund to see where the money is spent that the great British public donate to and that it’s spent properly and well. I’ve been involved with it with my businesses for a number of years, both Ryman and Robert Dyas, both convenience shops involved with our communities so there’s real great enthusiasm in those six weeks leading up to Comic Relief where it gives our colleagues the opportunity to interact with our customers, have a bit of fun, be a bit silly, come off the tracks a little bit and come away from the mundane part of life and raise millions and millions of pounds, which we do every year for the charity, and help others, so it really is win-win all round.
CDTT: A great collaboration Theo, as you say, win-win. You mentioned Boux Avenue, this is a brand that’s relatively new to me.
TP: Where do you live?
CDTT: Norwich.
TP: Ah, we have a shop in Norwich, in Chapelfield. Really, Boux Avenue was probably the biggest single reason I stopped Dragon’s Den… that, and Robert Dyas, because I started Boux Avenue. And when we started Boux Avenue, we took a clean piece of paper and I said if I wanted to create an international lingerie company and I’ve got nothing at the moment, how would it be? So we designed a shop, opened a few shops to test it, created and designed the product, and we’ve been going for three years now. We’ve got 25 stores in the UK, 10 overseas already, we’re now turning over a lot of money as a business, it’s become an international brand and it’s taken a lot of my time with a lot of people involved, an international team and we’re very excited about it. In the middle of a recession, we started a retail business aimed at an international market…
CDTT: …and it worked.
TP: And it worked.
CDTT: You did an interview back in 2011 and quoted that you were going on the search for ‘Boux’, did you find her?
TP: Boux… a little French woman we met on a family holiday in Monaco, she was cute and lovely and epitomised what we had in mind for the brand.
CDTT: Well, Shane and I are going to Monaco this year, so we’ll look out for her! With my fashion editor hat on now, your style and dress sense is very elegant… do you have a stylist or does Mrs P choose your clothes?
TP: I have had a stylist for a programme I appeared on, but I dress myself – Man at Dunhill!
CDTT: (Both laugh) And do you have any acquisitions or business opportunities in the pipeline that you can tell me about?
TP: Well, Boux Avenue is growing internationally, any day now I’m going to sign a contract on another large international deal which we’ll probably announce within the next ten days, Robert Dyas is growing, Ryman is growing, we’re always on the look out for other things. We’ve had a great Christmas, a great retail year, and we’re all passionate about what we do, we all love shop-keeping, if you look on my Twitter, I’m the ‘shopkeeper’, that’s what I do. I’d give up television and everything else, but I couldn’t give up shop-keeping.
CDTT: So the reason you left Dragons Den was because the new businesses were in their infancy and you needed to give more time to ‘shop-keeping’.
TP: Yes, and Boux had launched, I risked a lot of money in that, I had to get that right and also it wasn’t fair to everybody else, my diary was becoming rubbish and the filming weeks made things very tight. I had such a marvellous time (on Dragons Den) and the BBC get knocked and knocked and knocked but actually, as I learnt about television and learnt how brilliant the BBC are, I became more appreciative of what they do… people don’t realise how good they are. So I had a wonderful time in my eight years on Dragon’s Den and it was a wrench to leave, it really was a wrench.
CDTT: I think the public miss you not being there sitting next to Peter.
TP: Well, Deborah (Meaden) has my seat now but the BBC were very generous giving me a year off television to get my businesses established and they kindly backed me, and a year to the day, they called and offered me a slot on The One Show, which is great fun. I’m back into the swing of things now that Boux is established, and Robert Dyas has gone from a difficult loss-making business to a very profitable business. So what’s new? I’ll tell you what’s new, I’m back on TV, that’s what’s new.
CDTT: So, to round things off, the person that really makes me laugh is Lee Evans, he hits my comedy button, who hits yours?
TP: Morecambe and Wise always made me laugh, David Jason, but now… and Mrs P is really going to slap me for saying this, Lemon, Keith Lemon! He cracks me up!
CDTT: And who is Mrs P’s favourite?
TP: Miranda! Miranda actually said “Theo Paphitis is my fantasy man” in one episode… my Twitter feed went mad (laughing).
CDTT: Thank you so much Theo, a fabulous interview!
TP: Lovely to meet you, enjoy your cruise and Monaco… and if you see Boux, say hello!
After the interview, I came to the conclusion this successful entrepreneur really does have a USP … a ‘Unique Spirited Person’ with a nose for business and an eye for the opportunity – plus he makes a jolly good cup of builders slosh!
Watch the Snotty Professor teapot being eased into place!
Time for tea with Theo and his celebrity friends:
Matt Cardle
Appearing at Wrexposure Music Festival on 4th April 2015 – www.wrexposure.com/
@LaurenGoodger – www.laurensway.com – promoting her range of tan, lip, hair and eyelash products, wearing a camel–coloured coat from Cherry Drop Clothing:
Best known playing Nigel Bates EastEnders, now Elliot Hope in Holby City
Helen Lederer
Losing It is the hilarious debut from Helen Lederer, one of the UK’s favourite comediennes, a ‘mid-lit’ book (apparently somewhere between chick-lit and grey-lit!)
Nick Moran
Appearing in ‘Twelve Angry Men’ at the Garrick Theatre, London, until March 15;nimaxtheatres.com/Garrick
OWN YOUR OWN RED NOSE DAY TEAPOT!
The porcelain Red Nose Day teapot featuring the Snotty Professor costs £4.99 from Robert Dyas or from the online shop, with at least £2.25 from each sale going to Comic Relief.
Through his appearances on Dragons’ Den, Theo has advised many young entrepreneurs and invested in several innovative businesses and brands. The Paphitis Charitable Trust distributes all of his fees from TV appearances, speeches and his book to causes close to his heart and charities associated with children. In early 2009 Theo was appointed patron for Skillsmart Retail, the Sector Skills Council for Retail, which is committed to driving up skills levels in the industry. His special areas of responsibility are as the Retail Apprentices’ Champion and for the new National Skills Academy for Retail. In summer 2009 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Middlesex. Theo lives in Surrey with his wife Debbie. They have five children and three grandchildren.
Ryman – www.ryman.co.uk
Ryman is a UK stationery retail company with over 230 outlets nationwide in the UK. The website and stores provide a wide range of stationery and office supplies for homes and businesses. Theo acquired Ryman in 1995. He introduced the Ryman Direct mail ordercatalogue in 1996, the Ryman website in 1998 and has turned Ryman into a successful and profitable business comprising 232 stores with a turnover of more than £120m.
Robert Dyas – www.robertdyas.co.uk
Robert Dyas is a UK retailer founded in London in 1872. The website and stores provide ranges of housewares, small electrical appliances, gardening products, kitchenwares, DIY, and consumer electronics throughout 96 stores, mainly in Greater London and South East England.
Boux Avenue – www.bouxavenue.com
Boux Avenue Ltd. is a chain of lingerie stores based in the United Kingdom. Boux Avenue launched in the spring of 2011 initially opening six stores across the United Kingdom. All the stores are located in shopping centres across the region, including Bluewater (Kent), Lakeside (Essex), St. Davids (Cardiff), Trafford Centre (Manchester), Meadowhall Centre (Sheffield) and Buchanan Galleries (Glasgow). In March 2012, a seventh store in Birmingham’s Bullring opened. In September 2014, an eighth store opened in Brighton’s Churchill Square shopping centre. The store boasts an original selling layout for the UK shopper by displaying the majority of its products in drawers as opposed to hanging rails and stands.
www.coopersbeansandleaves.com
With their quirky little three wheeled mobile coffee van, Coopers Beans and Leaves brings you high quality gourmet coffees including Lattes, Cappuccinos, Americanos, to name but a few, also offering a large range of Organic Fairtrade Clipper Teas, (always adding to the range), the “best” hot chocolate, Chai, Lynch’s Hot Apple & Schmoo Milkshakes, along with a delicious selection of home-made cakes and goodies. #TeaWithTheo event images courtesy Shane Finn www.visual-devotion.co.uk@VisualDevotion
Most of us know Maisie Williams from her excellent turn as Arya Stark in Game of Thrones but she is also in excellent new Channel 4 show Cyberbully. Here she is interviewed about her new role.
At 17, Maisie Williams has probably achieved more, seen more than most of us will in a lifetime, yet the star of Game of Thrones remains a remarkably modest, unaffected, eloquent young woman. Here, she discusses her new project, Cyberbully, a remarkable one-off drama for Channel 4 about the dangers lurking on the internet.
Cyber Bully airs on Thursday 15 January at 9pm on Channel 4.
Your new project is Cyberbully. You play Casey. What’s her story?
Casey begins as a young teenager who’s struggling to express herself, and the only way she feels safe is to do that anonymously through the internet. She finds that, using a fake name, she can post honestly about things that annoy her, things that make her laugh, things that make her happy and sad. That’s the way she gets teen angst out of her system, I guess. When we meet her, she’s battling with sharing her best friend with her best friend’s boyfriend, which is a common issue for a lot of teenagers. We see that first-hand in the first few minutes. As the story picks up, she realises that, through hacking and whatever, people can take anything that you’ve written, anything you’ve recorded, pictures you’ve taken, anything like that, and they can turn it into something you never meant it to be. Really, anyone with the power of their computer taken away from them and used against them, even the nicest and most genuine of people can be portrayed as something they’re not, which is something extremely current at the moment. It’s something we’ve seen a lot of, with phone hacking, computer hacking, iCloud hacking, in the news recently. That’s something that really attracted me to the project.
Explain a little more about that. Why were you attracted to this role?
I feel like Cyberbully is a really honest representation of interactions between teens and their parents, and each other. A lot of the time things aren’t always at they seem. Teens get it hard for being grumpy and being rude, and this shows the other side to that, and actually what could be going on behind closed doors, I guess. In a pretty extreme way. She battles with anxiety, and that comes into its own story arc during the hour. We never leave her, we never cut away to anything else, we only see her in her bedroom, and other characters are only referred to through shadows or video clips or pictures and Skype calls. Apart from that it’s just her, in a room – that’s something that’s very different to other things I’ve done.
The fact that it’s really just you, on your own, on screen for the whole time – has that made it quite an intense experience filming it?
Yeah, of course. It’s been one of the most intense two weeks of my life. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it, but it’s come with its difficulties. For the first week I was quite ill, so that didn’t help at all. But it’s been really exciting, and I’m so glad to have done it. As a young actor, you’re constantly looking for things that are going to push you out of you comfort zone, and show different emotions. With this, I feel like it’s got everything all in one. Such a range of emotions. That’s something you really look for. There’s not very many good, honest teenage roles written, without them being just a platform for the lead character. Teenagers are written pretty poorly, and this was such a good representation of a normal teen, who doesn’t have some extreme family issue or mental issue, or is a drug dealer or something. She’s just a normal girl who gets her life completely changed.
Have you been acting against a blank screen, or have you been interacting with stuff that’s happening on the screen?
We’ve got a full package, which, when you load looks like your home screen and your Facebook page and whatever, but isn’t. That’s really been helpful, actually being able to type, and being able to send messages and minimise browsers and all sorts, all within this one package. It’s been really, really great, and was something that, for our director Ben, was really a must. To really be reacting to a computer screen that’s actually using these words and photos.
Have you even met the other people who have acted in this [appearing on skype calls and in videos etc]?
We had a big rehearsal about a week before we started shooting, which was very beneficial, and we did a big run-through of the whole four acts. That was great, to meet everyone, but apart from that, during shooting I haven’t seen anyone. It’s been intense for that reason, but also necessary.
The story is pretty frightening, in terms of how much a person can hack into and destroy someone’s life. Is everything that happens genuinely possible?
Yeah, of course. There is no one story that Cyberbully is based upon, but everything included is very much possible, or has happened to various different people.
Has it made you think about internet security and what you do online?
Yeah, definitely. From the age of 12 I’ve been on the internet, on Twitter and Facebook and things like that, and I’ve had a very different experience of it from most teens of my age. But I can very much see the difficulties it presents, and the difficulties it has caused some of my friends and things like that. I think people always assume that it’s going to happen to someone else. It may not all play out the way it does in Cyberbully, but just because someone isn’t there hacking you and talking to you and manipulating your screen doesn’t mean they’re not there looking at you. In America, for example, everyone always puts a sticker over their webcam, little things like that, which really makes you stop and think. It’s something we’re all very new to. In the grand scheme of things the internet is still so young, and we know nothing about it. So it’s something we need to all think about. You think something’s safe just because it has a password on it, but that’s not always the case.
You mention being on Facebook and Twitter and stuff. With your profile, does that mean you’ve experienced negativity and trolling?
Yeah, of course. Trolling is the biggest thing that anyone faces, and it’s easy to dismiss, but it does hurt. As much as we like to say we don’t care, of course we do. People laugh at me when I try to stop people from behaving like that. Just in my followers, not on the internet in general. But I don’t want that. I don’t want Twitter to be that sort of place. People laugh at that, saying “If you’re trying to teach manners on the internet, you’ve got another thing [sic] coming.”
69 per cent of young people say they’ve experienced some form of Cyberbullying. That’s an extraordinary statistic, isn’t it?
Yeah, it is. Everyone I know is on Facebook, and if they’re not it’s because they’ve had a negative experience with it. That’s just awful. People turn a blind eye to stuff like that until someone’s gets really fucked up and goes too far.
One of the things that struck me about the script is that Casey has inadvertently done a bit of cyberbullying herself. Is that part of the problem, that people just don’t really realise the damage they may be doing to others?
Exactly! You don’t even realise that what you’re saying really does hurt people. And it kind of spirals out of control. “Oh, she’s saying it, so I can say it too.” That’s what was so interesting about it. It’s not all that straightforward. There’s not just an honest victim and an honest predator. We all say things that we regret, and especially on the internet. That was an eye-opener for me. You need to ask yourself “Would I ever say that to somebody in person? Would I be happy for my mum to see that I’d just written that?” Just because you’re hiding behind a fake name doesn’t mean you’re not talking to real people.
Your first ever professional acting role was as Arya Stark in Game of Thrones, a lead in one if the biggest dramas ever on TV. How has your life changed in the last few years?
Completely! But it’s like I’ve never known anything else, really. I was a child, and then I started doing Game of Thrones, and now all of a sudden I’m growing up, I’m nearly 18 and I’m nearly officially an adult. It’s been a brilliant experience for me, I couldn’t really have asked for a better opportunity. So many kids of my age are struggling to know what they want to do for the rest of their lives, or what subjects they’re going to take, or what they’re going to do at Uni. I’ve been so lucky to have been given the opportunity to do something I love for the rest of my life.
Do you get recognised a lot? What’s that experience like?
I get recognised a lot, and it’s usually very lovely. People are always really nice, and it’s the price that you pay for doing this job. It’s still awfully strange. People forget that they don’t know you. Sometimes people get a bit – particularly when its parties or festivals and people are a bit drunk – it gets very intense, and people forget that you’re actually a person, and they’re not allowed to just grab you and pull you by your arm and grab your t-shirt. They’re never trying to be nasty, but sometimes that’s really overwhelming. Sometimes that’s not okay. But usually it’s a very, very positive experience. I’ve got more used to it.
How have you kept up with studies? Are you going to continue with studying, or carry on with acting full time?
We tried to juggle school and film, but it was very difficult. My school weren’t very supportive of it all. So we decided to drop that and do home tutoring, which went well for a few years. It came round to my GCSEs and I landed a role in an Irish movie called Gold, and I ended up not doing the exams and doing the film instead. So to this day I haven’t got any GCSEs, because I haven’t stopped, and that was a conscious decision. We decided that I was going to do acting, and school will come later. I’m still very happy with that decision. At the moment it’s going so well, I’m getting to do so many fantastic roles, I’d rather just stay doing this. That doesn’t mean in the future I’m not going to go back. I’d love to be treated normally as other kids, and not have horrible things written about me because I didn’t do this exam or haven’t got that qualification. But at the moment it’s the decision that we made, and it feels like the right one.
What one message would you want young viewers to take away from the drama?
Some people on the internet are never going to be satisfied with any reasoning. The answer is just to close your computer and walk away, because it doesn’t matter. Don’t try reasoning with the trolls or the bullies, don’t engage with them, just walk away. You can’t win, so just walk away, and find people who really care about you.
Nadine Baggott, health and beauty editor at HELLO! magazine, has launched her new website at nadinebaggott.com in addition to a new YouTube channel The Beauty Know It All.
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