Latest 7 magazine

Latest 7 talks to Colin Firth about his role in the new big screen adaptation of Noel Coward’s Easy Virtue

Were you aware of the Noel Coward play before doing this movie?
No. Funnily enough I’ve done a film adaptation of a Noel Coward play before, and it was quite a similar premise.
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Anthony Van Laast MBE, choreographer of stage spectaculars, on why he loves Holiday On Ice and working with Robin Cousins

How did you first get involved with Holiday on Ice?
It was interesting. I choreographed two big shows in Las Vegas, I choreographed a show for Siegfried & Roy, the magicians with the white tigers, and I worked with Michael Crawford at the MGM hotel. Each one, at its time, was the biggest show ever done in Vegas.
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Raymond Briggs talks to Rachel Pegg about growing older, his technophobia and why he hates Christmas

Your stories don’t hold back and they don’t have happy endings, do you think that appeals to children?
Probably, I don’t know, I’m no expert on children, I’ve not had any myself and I never taught in schools so I’ve had very little to do with them. I don’t take that into account. I do what I do and it appeals to the people it does.

Are you writing for all ages?
Oh yes, unless you’re doing a Cat Sat on the Mat book for under fives which I don’t really do, you just do the idea and sometimes you’re not all that sure whether it’s a children’s book or not until you get to the end. Sometimes you think you’ve done a children’s book and it appeals to adults. I once did an adult book and when it got to the shop floor they stuck it in the children’s section. I got a lot of irate letters about that.
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Victoria Nangle chats to an icon of eighties TV, the unforgettable Val Lehman aka Bea Smith

Bea Smith ruled the roost in Australia’s Wentworth prison from 1979 until 1983, and for those 400 episodes of Prisoner Cell Block H Val Lehman ruled Bea Smith. Iconic at the press in the laundry and constantly wrestling to maintain her position as Top Dog, the support for the show and for Bea, in particular, has been phenomenal. Now, almost 30 years later, Prisoner Cell Block H is finally available on DVD.
So how do you account for the show’s success? “I think it’s because it was possible for the audience to identify with the women. They weren’t perfect, with perfect hairstyles, perfect gowns, perfect make-up and a perfect home with a husband and children and a perfect lover.” She chuckles. “They were real women”.
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