✧･ﾟHappy birthday, Zoë! ✧･ﾟ

13 May 2025 11:39

Zoë’s work brings us all so much joy. So let’s wish her a joyful, brilliant birthday for today, 13 May!

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Watch Zoë in the new Bergerac from 27 February

27 February 2025 04:07

Zoë Wanamaker fans in the UK can watch the highly anticipated reimagining of classic detective drama Bergerac from 27 February.

For the next six weeks, episodes will air on Thursdays on the U&Drama channel at 9pm and be repeated on U&Drama +1 at 10pm. In addition, you’ll be able to stream the whole series whenever you like thanks to the U on-demand service.

Many international fans will also be able to watch Bergerac in due course, as the show has been sold to nine other countries.

Bergerac teaser and trailer

In Bergerac, Zoë plays Charlie Hungerford, mother-in-law to the recently widowed title character, played by Damien Molony. Speaking to the Radio Times, she memorably describes her character as ‘a powerful, ruthless woman’.

We glimpse Charlie in the teaser and trailer. Bergerac promises to be a compelling, beautifully made series.

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Watch Take Three Girls – Zoë’s BBC debut from 1971

28 November 2024 11:55

There’s a treasure waiting for Zoë Wanamaker fans on YouTube: you can now watch her BBC TV debut, which is also, as far as I know, her earliest surviving TV appearance. A very young Zoë plays Jackie, a shy, somewhat awkward secretary, in an episode from the second series of bold drama Take Three Girls, which originally aired in 1971.

Although the episode’s title, ‘Jenny: Kitsch, or Protocols in a Chinese Laundry’, is tricky to fathom, the storyline is compelling (some plot spoilers ahead). Jackie works for talented, up-and-coming newspaper journalist Jenny (Carolyn Seymour), who’s part of the trio of strong-minded young women at the heart of the show. Jenny finds herself being pursued – and, to some extent, manipulated – by a flash entrepreneur, Sidney Barnes (played by the legendary comedian Bob Monkhouse, no less).

Sidney suggests that he’s incredibly wealthy, showers Jenny with fancy gifts and more or less promises her a job with a top broadsheet. She allows herself to be taken in while he feeds her stories about his business ventures for publication and tries to milk her for information about rival companies known to her employer. Jenny initially dismisses Sidney as ‘a joke’, but to modern eyes his actions look very much like harassment.

In Zoë’s main scene (which begins just under 23 minutes into the episode), it becomes clear that Sidney has also manipulated Jackie, in order to exert his influence over Jenny’s personal life as well as her career. Jackie admits that Sidney turned up at the office when Jenny was out (‘Listen, Jenny, I haven’t been quite honest with you...’). He persuaded her to hand over Jenny’s home address and phone number. Jackie also reveals that phoney information from Sidney has got Jenny into trouble with her boss.

We’re extremely fortunate to be able to watch this programme; most of the other episodes of Take Three Girls were wiped from the TV archives, as so often happened back then. Although Zoë’s role is relatively small, it’s sensitively acted, especially when Jenny is drawing a confession out of the secretary. And, of course, it paved the way for numerous other TV roles.

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Happy 22nd birthday, zoewanamaker.com!

29 July 2024 18:39

It’s almost impossible to believe, but 30 July will mark 22 years since I launched this website for Zoë Wanamaker fans! The site started life on Geocities before moving to zoewanamaker.com a few years later.

Zoë by @karodoodle

One of the most enjoyable aspects of running a website about my favourite actor is having the opportunity to get to know and become friends with other fans of Zoë and her fantastic work. For the site’s 22nd anniversary, I want to highlight a particularly special friend, Karoline (aka @karodoodle). She’s extremely kind, bright and creative with a strong social conscience and sense of justice; in other words, she possesses many of the qualities numerous fans around the world admire in Zoë.

Speaking of fans, I’m a huge fan of Karoline’s striking, stylised portraits. So I was over the moon when she agreed to create the above image of Zoë especially for this anniversary. (You can click on it to see a bigger version; there’s also a big version without the text). Karoline has a gift for capturing a person’s likeness with relatively few lines. I’m reminded of the way Zoë excels at capturing a character - by the time she’s spoken just a few lines, you have an unforgettably strong sense of that individual, from Madam Hooch to Ranyevskaya.

If you’d like to see more of Karoline’s amazing art, including this portrait she created for me last year (I told you she’s kind!) and images of her favourite band, Sparks, check out her Instagram profile @karodoodle.

Sending much love and gratitude to Zoë, her PA Vanessa, and my family and friends for their enthusiasm and support. And thank YOU for visiting this website! I’ll do my best to make the next 12 months of zoewanamaker.com as fun and memorable as possible.

And let’s conclude this celebratory post with a recent, delightful press photo of Zoë and her husband, Gawn Grainger :)

Liz xx

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Zoë filming new version of classic TV drama Bergerac

9 July 2024 17:37

This month Zoë begins filming a reimagined version of the hit 1980s detective drama Bergerac. Here she is at a read-through for the new six-part series, alongside Damien Molony. The latter has been cast as recently widowed detective Jim Bergerac, with Zoë playing another key role, Charlie Hungerford. (You can click on the photo to see a larger version.)

The press release from UKTV, the company that’s commissioned the series for its U&DRAMA channel (formerly called Drama) and streaming service, points to the difficult relationship between these two characters. ‘[Bergerac’s] mother-in-law, Charlie (Wanamaker), is concerned Jim isn’t putting his daughter Kim first’ following the tragic death of his wife.

Metro highlights the fact that Zoë, who the newspaper describes as a ‘Harry Potter legend’, is in the cast. There are also enthusiastic articles about the Bergerac reboot from the Radio Times, ITV News and Televisual, to name but a few.

In the John Nettles-led classic BBC series, Charlie (Terence Alexander) was the divorced Bergerac’s former father-in-law and a loveable rogue. It’ll be fascinating to see what effect portraying the character as a woman who (like Bergerac) is grieving in the new version will have. In another change, the updated Bergerac will feature one murder mystery rather than continuing with the one-case-per-episode format familiar to 80s Bergerac viewers.

One aspect of the show that remains the same, however, is the setting: beautiful Jersey. The new Bergerac will be made there and in the UK.

Other cast members include Philip Glenister and Pippa Haywood. The main writer is Toby Whithouse. Bergerac is a UKTV Original series produced by BlackLight TV (part of Banijay UK) and Westward Studios with support from Visit Jersey.

It’ll be screened in the UK in 2025. The press release also hints at international distribution plans.

Thanks to Janet for her help :)

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