Buckinghamshire train saved from scrap to star in Harry Potter
Wightwick Hall, built at Swindon Works in 1948, was withdrawn in 1964 and sent to a Barry Island scrapyard where hundreds of trains were eventually saved by a railway preservation movement.It is currently on loan to Bluebell Railway in West Sussex and operates on a line near Brighton.Stephen Green, general manager of Buckinghamshire Railway Centre, said: "These trains have to be maintained and kept running to keep them in working condition, this one needs a long track which they have at Bluebell."The train will be used for filming for six months of the year before returning to West Sussex afterwards.Members of the team at Buckinghamshire Railway Centre will supervise during filming to ensure the train is maintained properly.
HBO has already announced a crop of actors have joined the show's cast, including Nick Frost, Paapa Essiedu, Katherine Parkinson and Paul Whitehouse.The three child actors taking on the lead roles were revealed in May.Mr Green hoped the train's appearance in the series would attract new fans to the working heritage railway centre.He said: "Hopefully it's a boost for tourism. People can come and see the engineering workshops and a similar train under restoration right now."
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The Guardian
11 hours ago
- The Guardian
‘We're told to be polite and small and dainty. But that's not me!': Megan Stalter on starring in Lena Dunham's new romcom, Too Much
When Lena Dunham messaged, Megan Stalter lost it. 'Like d'uhh,' Stalter is explaining – delighting, really. 'Who wouldn't? I was at home: this really bad apartment in Laurel Canyon [in the Hollywood Hills]. The area is haunted, and it was actually a really scary building, and nothing ever got fixed because apparently in the lease I signed they didn't have to repair anything! I don't actually live there now …' Stalter, 34, has a tendency to wander off on tangents. So Dunham? 'OK yes, so we were just about to start filming Hacks again.' The wildly popular, 48-times-Emmy-nominated HBO comedy in which Stalter plays nepo-baby Kayla, a chaotic and kind-hearted talent agent, her total-commitment-to-the-bit characterisation making her a breakout star. 'And there Lena was in my DMs.' Stalter opened the message, which said: 'I have a project I want to talk to you about.' 'That's when I lost my mind,' she adds. 'Panic set in.' 'I'm not,' Stalter clarifies, 'a celebrity person. I don't fangirl over people – but with Lena I do. She's a creative genius; I'm such a Girls nut, and always felt so connected to her.' In its six seasons, Dunham's HBO hit transformed television through its unflinching portrayal of millennial women. Eight years since the final episode broadcast, the Dunham buzz hasn't abated. Breathe, Stalter had to remind herself. 'OK, calm down, diva – 'project' is vague. It might be a commercial, an event, a task, maybe.' Not that Stalter was fussy. 'Anything she wanted me to do, I would obviously say yes.' Turns out, Dunham didn't need errands running. 'And thank God, honestly.' Dunham was in the early stages of developing Too Much, her semi-autobiographical Netflix 10-parter, which is released on 10 July. Following Jessica (Stalter), an American thirtysomething workaholic who relocates from New York to England in the deepest throes of heartbreak, the show plays out as an offbeat romcom, with Will Sharpe (The White Lotus, Flowers) playing the indie-musician love interest. Stalter's attempts at regional British accents, and a cocaine-fuelled dance break from Richard E Grant, are some of the show's unexpected highlights. Loosely, it's based on Dunham's own experiences: after splitting from music producer Jack Antonoff, she met her now husband, British musician Luis Felber, in London. They wrote Too Much together. 'Jessica is going through a really horrible breakup,' Stalter says, 'and this person she was with previously made her feel she's 'too much', and not in a good way. She falls for someone new pretty quickly who does accept who she is and, when she's surrounded by people who appreciate her, realises she's yes, a little bit much, in a great way.' In the show, Dunham plays Jessica's older sister. 'When Lena and I got on Zoom we just clicked. She said right away that if Girls was about sex and discovering who you are, Too Much is a story of love and discovering acceptance. For Lena, like Jessica, finding someone who accepted her the way she is encourages her to embrace herself.' Pre-Hacks, Dunham had been introduced to Stalter by Andrew Scott, who drops by for a cameo in this series. 'From the moment I conceived the character,' Dunham says, 'even before I began collaborating with Luis, it was always Meg. I had a feeling that she could be both intensely funny and do something darker and more vulnerable.' Pre-Hacks, Stalter built a cult social media following, regularly posting clips of kooky skits and characters (small-town butter shop during Pride month; Woman flirts at a bowling alley) that caught Dunham's eye. 'Meg is never looking down on the characters she plays,' she says, 'no matter how delusional or silly they may seem. She truly falls in love with, and goes to bat for, whoever she's playing – and it's contagious.' It's late March when I first meet Stalter, in the lobby of a central London hotel. Shooting on Too Much has wrapped, but it's early stages in the months-long slog of a press and promo schedule a Dunham x Netflix collab demands. She's late, 15 minutes maybe, although she's staying right upstairs. 'I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry!' she gushes, all smiles, dropping her teddy bear phone case on the table. 'We were working on the ponytail for the day and got carried away! Almond latte?' Both Stalter and Dunham found bringing Jessica to life an intimate undertaking. Long before shooting started, they spoke extensively about the material and Dunham's own experiences. Script by script, they'd dissect. 'Lena had a small writers' room where they'd bounce ideas together,' says Stalter, 'then after that, it would come to me, and I would have lots of questions: her previous bad relationship; her family; how she was feeling.' Dunham remembers these well. 'Meg is a very intuitive performer,' she tells me, 'not method, but she has her method. She asks specific questions that may seem random or left-of-centre and then it always finds its way into the work.' Stalter made lists of how she and Jessica were similar, then differed. 'So, like, in common: we are both very anxious people. Not in common: she's lost her dad, I haven't. Jessica is straight and I'm a mostly lesbian bisexual. But I have dated men. And Jessica might not date women, but sexuality is a spectrum … Me and Lena both agreed that if she'd explored a little, maaaaaybe she would have dated women.' On set, over four months in London, this proximity continued. 'If it felt like an emotional scene,' says Stalter, 'I'd want a moment just with her, so I felt more connected.' There's a post-coital scene where Jessica's sexual self-confidence falters. 'Lena and I talked a lot about how, after a breakup, no matter how hot or beautiful you feel and are, you can be so beaten down that insecurity hits.' The pair spoke extensively, too, about the show's title, with its heap of gendered connotations. Is 'you're too much' a phrase she's had lobbed in her direction? Stalter furrows her brow. 'Excuse me, sir, no; people see me as calm, cool and collected.' Three seconds of deadpan, before the laughter erupts. 'I am definitely seen as too much. Any loud woman will be told she's too much at some point. We are made to feel small or too big, sometimes both at the same time, unless we're neatly in a perfect box. A lot of women experience it: me and Lena were both told we were too much, but then decided we like that about ourselves. I think it's so sexy to be loud and funny, weird and strange, silly and goofy. It was at school that I realised those traits are often welcomed in boys, but not girls.' At the Stalter family home in Cleveland, Ohio, this just wasn't the case. 'I'm a loud woman from a loud family: 20 cousins, mostly women, a few males thrown in, I guess.' Dad's a tattoo artist, and mum a nurse. 'I have two sisters, a brother and lots of aunts. These are funny, opinionated, not-very-quiet women with big personalities – and that was totally normal. So it was, umm, interesting to then be in the real world where women are made to feel they can't be those things.' She scrunches her face, lugging her voice up an octave: 'We're told to be polite and small and dainty.' Pitch back down. 'But that's not me, girl.' Sign up to Inside Saturday The only way to get a look behind the scenes of the Saturday magazine. Sign up to get the inside story from our top writers as well as all the must-read articles and columns, delivered to your inbox every weekend. after newsletter promotion She found this first at school. 'I was a cheerleader, but like, a nerdy one. Not popular. Teachers made me feel small and not smart. I found myself shrinking into myself, getting quiet and nervous, except in drama and performance. I'd never get good parts; people thought I was bad, but I could be myself at least.' Through her late teens, Stalter tried all sorts at community college. Teaching wasn't a good fit. Neither was nursing. 'Listen, nurses are incredible,' she says, 'but I'm not supposed to be a nurse. I pass out at blood. Emotionally I was into it, but practically, it was not working.' Nothing was sticking. 'OK so I also love Jesus,' she continues, no change in pace. 'I'm a real God-girlie. If I wasn't going to do something I loved, I wanted to do something that helped God. I tried some mission work, and stuff with my church.' She attended a Pentecostal church from a young age, and aged 20 spent six months with a Christian youth organisation in South America. She gave Bible school a go, too. 'I tried for several years, but I really missed performing. I thought: 'If this is in me, maybe it's my service. Maybe God wants me to do what I really want to do, and share it with the world.'' Stalter joined a local improv class. 'I thought I was so good,' she says, 'but everyone there for some reason kept telling me I wasn't? Later on, a friend told me I was a bit like Michael Scott in The Office: walking on and messing things up. But I always felt deluded in my talent and how special I was, which really kept me going until I actually got good.' Aged 24, she moved to Chicago to pursue standup. 'And I performed for years there. It went OK, but not much was happening for me.' Everything changed when she started posting – an art for which Stalter has a knack – launching a spoof self-titled online talkshow. 'I was on Instagram live every night with a new theme. I'd set up weird things: 'Crazy trip to Paris night'; be a travel agent and pretend to book things. That is when it all took off.' In 2019, she moved to New York, and the gigs kept coming: Hacks, indie film Cora Bora, sell-out standup shows and now Too Much. In June, we speak again over Zoom, Stalter now back at home in Los Angeles in a thankfully ghost-free residence, with her girlfriend. 'Oh, and our two kitties, and a terrier who is really attached to me. Too attached, really. The separation anxiety is a problem.' It's intense, Los Angeles right now: anti-ICE protests and the general bad Trump vibes percolating. 'It's really upsetting,' Stalter says, 'devastating and scary.' She's been to some marches. 'People have to keep coming together to protest and support one another. We're fighting for each other.' Throwing herself into Too Much has been a much-welcomed escape. It's no affront to Stalter's range to see a through-line from her characters: from those early viral creations all the way to Jessica. Whether self-invented for standup and socials, or brought to life from scripts on screen, they tend to be big, bold, slightly berserk. 'What,' she's grinning, 'am I not as crazy as you expected? I like to play people who are nervous-confident: women who have a level of self-love but are falling apart and pretend they're not. I do a lot of standup with a persona I've built, too, where the character – me – pretends to be really talented but the show crumbles.' Stalter sees some of herself in these characters. 'I'm wild in that way,' she says, 'although I'm not horrible, I'm actually very nice. But I feel so confident on stage acting this crazy bitch. Something inside of me is over the top. When I'm at my most relaxed and comfortable, like on stage, it also comes out of me.' Playing characters who often move through the world unconcerned by judgment has made Stalter reflect. 'There's something really freeing about playing someone like that,' she believes. 'In real life, I'm such a people pleaser. I struggle with wanting everyone to be happy all the time, for them to be happy with me, scared of upsetting someone or having someone be mad at me. It's my greatest fear: like I'm going to die if someone is mad at me. It's something I'm working on in therapy.' Might that be a tricky trait in her industry? Dunham told New York magazine in 2024 she refrained from casting herself as the lead in part because she 'was just not up for having my body dissected again'. Too Much is Stalter's first leading TV role, and it's a big-hitter: there will be reviews, comparisons to Girls, so much more exposure. Stalter feigns a look of panic at the prospect. 'Wouldn't it be so funny if I passed out?' She smacks her hand on the table, leaving her latte wobbling. Another smile. She shrugs off the pressure. 'I'm a woman comedian who puts stuff on the internet, babe,' comes her reply, 'and I'm not skinny. So I've already had the meanest stuff said about me. Any woman posting – yes, skinny women, too – will get it. So I'm not worried when someone says something unkind, or doesn't like me in a show, honestly. I literally have a viral clip that's me reading out the worst, craziest abuse: 'Fat white comedian does crazy bomb set.'' She pauses for a moment. 'It's only in my personal life that I'm a massive people pleaser. If strangers say they hate Too Much, or me, whatever: I think I'm hot, I love how I look, and I love my comedy. I am who I am, and can't be anything but my loud self.' Too Much is on Netflix from 20 July.
Daily Record
19 hours ago
- Daily Record
Star-studded crime series with Harry Potter actor hailed 'unexpectedly great'
Harry Potter star Rupert Grint and Harlan Coben actor Marc Warren are among the cast of Guy Ritchie's Snatch - which crime fans have raved about. The star-studded television adaptation of Guy Ritchie's Snatch is now up for grabs. The 2017 crime series, featuring Marc Warren known from the Harlan Coben adaptations Missing You and Safe. It also features Harry Potter star Rupert Grint, Emily in Paris star Lucien Laviscount, and Skins actor Luke Pasqualino. It has now landed on ITVX. Both instalments of the show are available after making their earlier appearance on Netflix this year. Created by Alex De Rakoff and inspired by Ritchie's 2000 gangster film, Snatch delves into the escapades of a band of young hustlers, portrayed by Pasqualino, Grint, and Laviscount, who stumble upon a lorry full of purloined gold bars and get wrapped up in the murky underworld of London. The cast also includes Bridgerton 's Phoebe Dynevor, Stephanie Leonidas, and Dougray Scott, with Money Heist's Úrsula Corbero making a guest appearance in the second season. Audience reactions on IMDb to the crime series have been varied, with one viewer describing it as "unexpectedly great". Despite acknowledging its imperfections, this reviewer awarded it a perfect score of 10/10, finding it "was very fun to watch". "I was left thinking about it for days after and wanting more," they added. Another viewer offered a more lukewarm take, labelling it a "light" version of Snatch, rating it 6/10 for being a "heavily diluted" take on the original film. Meanwhile, someone else commended the series' promising beginning but lamented that it failed to live up to its initial potential. "It just kept going downhill. Very disappointing considering how good the movie was," they remarked. Elsewhere, other fans of the original expressed their admiration with how the TV adaptation turned out, particularly praising the cast, script, and its divergence from the film. "Each episode is as exciting and riveting as the last. Great cast, brilliantly written, acting is on point," a viewer expressed delighted with the outcome. "If you're looking for a throwback to the original Guy Ritchie masterpiece, this show is not what you are looking for," penned another, complimenting Snatch as "an enjoyable show with likeable characters and pretty solid dialogue and writing".
BBC News
20 hours ago
- BBC News
Gavin and Stacey: Barry house home to Doris goes up for sale
Gavin and Stacey enthusiasts have long flocked to Barry Island to have a nose at the show's filming locations. But now, fans of the much-loved comedy series have the chance to take it one step further, as the property which acted as the home of the show's iconic character Doris has gone up for sale. The two-bed mid-terrace on Trinity Street in Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, neighbours the houses that also played host to Bryn and Gwen and before you ask - no, it doesn't come with a salad. Beloved Doris, played by the actress Margaret John, was a friend and next door neighbour of the Shipman John's death in 2011, the show featured a storyline that Doris had left the house to Gavin and Stacey in her was known for her frankness, as well as for refusing to make the salad for Neil the Baby's may recognise the rooms inside the property from the 2019 Christmas special, when Gavin and Stacey hosted both families from Essex and Barry and extended the dining table into the living room. The kitchen in particular saw some chaos, too, as Uncle Bryn had a meltdown over cooking Christmas dinner, and took to using walkie talkies to organise his timings and communicate with Gwen. 'Where's the salad?' A video tour of the property, posted online by Chris Davies Estate Agents, has so far racked up nearly 40k likes, with one fan commenting: "That's not Doris' house, there is no talc in the bathroom."While several others asked the all important question: "Where's the salad?"Andrew Walton, managing director of the agency, said the interest had been "excellent as a result of the history in the property". But he added: "When you whittle it down to genuine enquiries and those that are financially qualified there is a much smaller number." Uncle Bryn's house also went "viral" online when it went up for sale in 2023, with many fans getting excited at the thought of owning the ultimate memorabilia. Yet some fans expressed their sadness at the latest sale, as they said it "really is the end" of the comedy show after its iconic Christmas finale in 2024. But we all know, by rights, Doris' house belongs to Nessa.
