Returning to reminisce on the film sets on which they grew from inexperienced cherubic actors into fully fledged film stars, #ReturnToHogwarts is a warm bundle of magical nostalgia, writes @henryfabird
The success of the films was no guarantee, however. In the book Harry Potter: Page to Screen, the producer David Heyman says that he thought “at most, the first book might make a good, modestly sized British film”.
But it went on to gross more than $1 billion
Much of the cast became forever defined by their characters in Harry Potter.
As the most famous boy wizard in the world, Radcliff embraced his past. “I’ll always be happy to talk about it,” he says in Return to Hogwarts.
”Every part of my life is connected to Potter”
So what are the Hogwarts alumni up to now?
Radcliff has since branched out into seemingly every branch of the arts. He held his own in the Broadway musical How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and made a perfectly pitched comic turn in Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
After the final Potter, Rupert Grint didn’t seem to have the same momentum as his fellow cast members.
However, his fortunes have recently turned landing a leading role in the M Night Shyamalan psychological horror series Servant on Apple TV+. He also became a father last year
Despite going on to have leading roles in films such as Beauty and the Beast and Little Women, Emma Watson who played Hermionie Granger has pivoted to fewer red carpets and more conference meetings” having addressed the UN and hosted a panel at COP26 with Greta Thunberg
Evanna Lynch, who played Luna Lovegood recently published her memoir, The Opposite of Butterfly Hunting, which details her recovery from anorexia and the life-changing effects of Harry Potter. She also hosts the podcast @ChickPeepsPod
Tom Felton, who played Hogwart’s infamous Draco Malfoy has gone on to work steadily, starring in films such as Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Ophelia, and can next be seen alongside Harriet Walter in the Second World War drama Burial
Despite being a small part, the pleasant and even-tempered Dean Thomas is still one of Alfred Enoch’s defining roles.
He went on to star in US legal thriller How to Get Away with Murder and the Apple TV+ science-fiction series Foundation
Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: #ReturnToHogwarts is available to watch on Sky Max on January 1
After 12 tumultuous months, it is hard to imagine that our world could become any more disordered – but it’s almost certain that 2022 will be anything but plain sailing
The nation is set to find the answer in 2022 to the question that dominates political life: is the Trump era over or merely on pause?
President Xi - China
The party congress, taking place in the autumn, will be the most important political event this year for China. Observers will be looking closely at personnel shuffles to probe the country’s opaque politics, including how strong Xi’s grip on power is
“Nobody ever asks if Robert De Niro was likeable in Taxi Driver”
Interview 🎙️| Maggie Gyllenhaal on The Lost Daughter, awards, motherhood and “unlikeable women” thetimes.co.uk/article/maggie…
Gyllenhaal has made her directorial debut with the kind of power, splash and swagger you would expect to see from a film-making wunderkind, writes @KevinTMaher
The Lost Daughter, her adaptation of the Elena Ferrante novel, is “ridiculously accomplished, from its visual style to its gut-wrenching narrative to the searing turns from Olivia Colman, Jessie Buckley and Dakota Johnson”
@refugeecouncil Amrayaf says the Refugee Council’s work has transformed her life. “Without a job you can’t really integrate to a new country or contribute or feel like you belong. So the support the Council has provided me has changed my life”
@refugeecouncil The Refugee Council supports about 100 refugees into work every year and it helps hundreds more get into further education or work experience. It would like to do more
Prince Andrew has been asked to provide documentary evidence of “his alleged inability to sweat” and the names of anyone he met at a Pizza Express in Woking by lawyers for Virginia Giuffre thetimes.co.uk/article/prince…
The lawyers have also demanded any documents related to his “travel to or from . . . the Tramp nightclub” in London and any gifts he received from Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein, “including but not limited to puppets”
Giuffre, 38, alleges that she was brought to London in 2001 when she was 17 by Epstein and Maxwell and that she was introduced to the Duke. They went out together to the club, where the prince sweated profusely, and then came back to Maxwell’s house in Belgravia, she has alleged
When @AlfDubs saw children being carried wrapped in blankets out of small boats in Kent, he was instantly taken back to the moment he arrived in Britain on the Kindertransport having fled the Nazis at the age of six
@AlfDubs “What it made me feel is terrible pain for the people who are fleeing,” says the 89-year-old Labour peer. “People must be desperate, having travelled so far anyway, to risk their lives in this way. It made me feel dismayed that our government is not enabling them to be safe”