All posts tagged: Alice

Bewitched: ‘Practical Magic’ Author Alice Hoffman on the Hotly Anticipated Sequel and Why All Women Should Have a Coven

Bewitched: ‘Practical Magic’ Author Alice Hoffman on the Hotly Anticipated Sequel and Why All Women Should Have a Coven

Published by Sam Flores

I previously spoke to Griffin Dunne about directing the first Practical Magic, and he told me the set may have been cursed by a real-life witch. Have you ever had any witchy experiences of your own? I think it happens all the time. In that particular instance, I was only on the set for a day. This may have more to do with Griffin than it does with Practical Magic. I mean, I think he did a great job, but don’t ask me. [Laughs] I grew up reading magic, so I was ready to believe in it. I love this author called Edward Eager. He wrote about magic, but it took place in Connecticut, and in the everyday world. It just opened me up as a child to believe anything could happen anytime. Or maybe I just wished anything could happen. Why do you think Practical Magic still resonates decades after the original story and film? It’s so interesting because, as a book, it did okay. As a movie, it did terribly when it came …

Nicola Walker’s ‘phenomenal’ drama Alice and Steve to return

Nicola Walker’s ‘phenomenal’ drama Alice and Steve to return

Published by Daniella Wilson

Nicola Walker fans, rejoice! The Unforgotten star’s hit Disney+ comedy-drama, Alice and Steve, is returning with a second outing.  Nicola stars alongside Jemaine Clement in the series, which follows the titular longtime pals whose 30-year friendship turns into an all-out feud when Steve starts dating Alice’s 26-year-old daughter.  © Lara Cornell/Disney+Nicola Walker stars as Alice in Alice and Steve Teasing the second run, the creator and writer Sophie Goodhart said, “no one will be prepared for what happens next.”  Intrigued? So are we! Keep reading to find out all we know about season two so far.  WATCH: The trailer for Alice and Steve What to expect from Alice and Steve season two In season one, Alice was devastated when her best friend Steve started dating her 26-year-old daughter Izzy, fearing she would lose both her closest pal and her daughter in one fell swoop.  © Lara Cornell/Disney+Jemaine Clement plays Steve, who begins a relationship with Alice’s 26-year-old daughter Alice tried everything she could to end the relationship, but unfortunately for her, Steve was prepared for …

Alice Roberts: ‘By the time I’d finished Richard Dawkins I’d left faith behind’ | Books

Alice Roberts: ‘By the time I’d finished Richard Dawkins I’d left faith behind’ | Books

Published by Sam Flores

My earliest reading memoryThe first books I remember were from The Village with Three Corners series Sheila K McCullagh. I loved the – literally – colourful characters, like Johnny Yellow Hat. I was reading with my Grandma, in her garden perhaps, sitting on a small patio, surrounded by bright begonias and busy lizzies. My favourite book growing upArnold Lobel’s wonderful Frog and Toad stories. Toad would get himself tied up in knots, trying to find a button or fly a kite, but Frog was always there – a constant, caring and funny friend. I enjoyed reading these stories to my own children when they were young, and we still sometimes go back and revisit them. They’re so full of humour, heart and simple humanism. The book that changed me as a teenagerAt that time I loved Alan Garner, Susan Cooper and Rosemary Sutcliff. But the book I remember having a really profound effect on me was Richard Dawkins’s The Selfish Gene. I was passionate about biology, and the gene’s-eye view turned it upside down and …

Meet the New Laura Ingalls, 11-year-old Actress Alice Halsey

Meet the New Laura Ingalls, 11-year-old Actress Alice Halsey

Published by Daniella Wilson

She’s sitting atop the call sheet. She’s tackling an iconic character. She’s plastered across billboards in Hollywood. Oh, did we mention she’s only 11 years old? Alice Halsey is taking on the Laura Ingalls mantle in Netflix’s new adaptation of Little House on the Prairie, which premiered July 9. “There’s never really been a billboard of me before, so this is insane,” the 11-year-old tells The Hollywood Reporter. “It’s mind-blowing.” Halsey had the Little House books in her house growing up, but she didn’t read them until she got the audition for Laura. “They’re so good,” she says. “I feel like Laura has this power to pull people in with all the details and the descriptions and everything. She definitely has a lot of power with her words.” The actress took preparing for Laura seriously. She read the script a lot, listened to podcasts and read books related to late 19th century era in which the show is set. “I just wanted to get a sense of who the character was, how I would play …

Evil Dead Burn ending explained: How does Alice overcome the Deadites?

Evil Dead Burn ending explained: How does Alice overcome the Deadites?

Published by Daniella Wilson

**WARNING: Includes major spoilers for Evil Dead Burn** The sixth instalment in the Evil Dead franchise arrives in cinemas this weekend – and director Sébastien Vaniček has delivered another brutal entry in the series originated by Sam Raimi all those years ago. In Evil Dead Burn, the Deadites unleash their havoc on a grieving family at a secluded house, where they have gathered to mourn their relative Will Price (George Pullar) after he was killed in a car accident brought on by a possessed character from the previous film. We say grieving family, but one of the members isn’t exactly upset about the death. Will’s wife Alice (Souheila Yacoub) had suffered years of abuse at the hands of her husband and is glad to finally be shot of him, which doesn’t go down well with the in-laws. Meanwhile, Will’s father Edgar (Erroll Shand) is so distraught that he demands to see his son’s body again before he is cremated. This is where the problems really begin, as this short window is all the Deadites need …

Rachel Aviv’s new book revisits the disturbed world of Alice Munro — and mother-daughter dynamics

Rachel Aviv’s new book revisits the disturbed world of Alice Munro — and mother-daughter dynamics

Published by Sam Flores

Book Review You Won’t Get Free of It: Stories of Mothers and Daughters By Rachel Aviv Knopf: 240 pages, $30 If you buy books linked on our site, The Times may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookstores. New Yorker staff writer Rachel Aviv has collected seven essays, six originally published in the magazine, under the rubric of mother-daughter stories. But the themes that emerge most forcefully from “You Won’t Get Free of It” transcend those relationships. They involve the slipperiness of truth and the crushing inadequacy of our mental-health system and social safety net. Most of Aviv’s characters wander through life uneasily, plagued by misdiagnosed, undiagnosable or undertreated maladies. Some are mothers, some daughters, with relationships that can be deeply loving or strained or both. But family alone can’t seem to do much to mitigate, let alone cure, mental illness or the impact of childhood trauma. Aviv notes in her preface, written expressly for this book, that she has re-reported or reshaped some of the stories, paying more attention to the …

Alice and Steve writer on how long she plans for Disney+ comedy to run

Alice and Steve writer on how long she plans for Disney+ comedy to run

Published by Daniella Wilson

*Warning – contains full spoilers for all six episodes of Alice and Steve.* All six episodes of Alice and Steve are available to watch now, and for those viewers who have already got to the end, they will know that the season ends on quite the fiery cliffhanger. The night before Steve and Izzy’s wedding, a fire starts at the venue, eventually engulfing the whole building. Alice goes back into the building to save Steve, who remains blissfully unaware that anything is wrong, and the two end up trapped on the roof. They appear to somewhat reconcile, before jumping from the building – to what fate, remains unclear. Now, speaking with Radio Times’s David Craig, the show’s writer Sophie Goodhart has revealed that it isn’t necessarily intended as an ambiguous ending, and that she does have a plan for a second season. She said: “It will slightly depend on how popular the show is, because if I get a season 2, it leads to something that is very chosen, that has already been decided upon. …

Will there be an Alice and Steve season 2?

Will there be an Alice and Steve season 2?

Published by Daniella Wilson

Alice and Steve has finally landed on Disney+, giving viewers a peek inside a calamitous romance that risks tearing a family apart. Nicola Walker and Jemaine Clement star as the title characters, who have been friends for decades when a shocking revelation pits them dramatically against each other. That is, when Steve reveals that he’s struck up a relationship with Alice’s daughter, Izzy (Yali Topol Margalith), who is three decades his junior and someone he’s known since she was very young. The series raises an interesting debate regarding whether 26-year-old Izzy should be free to make her own choice in life partner, whatever the cost, or if she and Steve should suppress their feelings to end her mother’s immense discomfort. Your loyalties may wander over the course of six scandalous episodes, with the finale very much leaving the door open for more. If you’re eager to see Alice and Steve season 2, here’s everything we know so far about the future of the Disney+ comedy. Will there be an Alice and Steve season 2? Jemaine …

Alice and Steve ending explained: Writer teases future after shock finale

Alice and Steve ending explained: Writer teases future after shock finale

Published by Daniella Wilson

Alice and Steve takes viewers through a whirlwind few months for two longtime best friends, who are torn apart by one shocking decision that changes their lives forever. Nicola Walker (Mary & George) and Jemaine Clement (Avatar) play the title characters, who find themselves in a spiteful war after Steve suddenly embarks on a romantic relationship with Alice’s 20-something daughter, Izzy (Yali Topol Margalith). Having briefly dated themselves many moons ago, Alice finds Steve’s new fascination utterly outrageous, and goes to great lengths to either split the couple up or destroy her former friend – whichever comes first. As we begin the Alice and Steve finale, it seems that those efforts have all been in vain, until a couple of last-minute twists suggest that this story isn’t over just yet. Here’s your guide to the Alice and Steve ending on Disney+, including an update from the writer on whether we can expect more. Be warned: full spoilers follow for Alice and Steve. Alice and Steve ending explained Yali Topol Margalith and Jemaine Clement star in …

Alice and Steve star defends Izzy’s shocking decision: “She’s not a villain”

Alice and Steve star defends Izzy’s shocking decision: “She’s not a villain”

Published by Daniella Wilson

Alice and Steve star Yali Topol Margalith has come to the defence of her character for what some viewers could interpret as a surprising disregard for her mother’s strongly held feelings. The new series, streaming now on Disney+, sees best friends Alice (Nicola Walker) and Steve (Jemaine Clement) torn apart by a surprising romance that blossoms between the latter and the former’s 20-something daughter, Izzy. While Steve bears the brunt of Alice’s wrath for this discombobulating development, Izzy is no passive party in the situation, as she quickly comes clean about their relationship within a day of it beginning. From that point onwards, she only becomes more determined and defiant to continue the relationship, despite the distress and trouble it stirs up for Alice and their family. Responding to the view that it could place Izzy herself in a less sympathetic light, Margalith explained to Radio Times why her character wouldn’t see eye-to-eye with her mother on this particular issue. “I know why you said Izzy disregards her mum’s feelings, but I think she doesn’t …