BFI to screen Memento Mori, Once in a Lifetime and Harry Potter

10 December 2014 01:43

In January the BFI will screen not one but two rare TV shows featuring Zoë, as well as one of her most successful films.

First up is Memento Mori, a 1992 comedy-drama, adapted from Muriel Spark's novel of the same name. Zoe plays Olive, the young acquaintance of a group of elderly friends plagued by mysterious, disturbing phonecalls in 1950s London. Memento Mori is described by the BFI as ‘technically perfect’ and ‘beautifully cast’ – Zoë appears alongside a host of other well-known actors including Maggie Smith, Stephanie Cole, Thora Hird and Michael Hordern. There are two opportunities to watch the programme: it will be screened on 11 January (6:10pm) and 14 January (8:30pm), as part of the BFI’s celebration of Maggie Smith’s work.

The BFI will screen the satirical Once in a Lifetime on 29 January (6:10pm). George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart’s play, adapted here for TV, focuses on the introduction of ‘talkies’ in late-1920s Hollywood. Zoë stars as May, part of a band of down-on-their-luck vaudeville performers who try their hand at giving elocution lessons to silent film stars. This 1988 programme features Zoë’s second appearance in the role – she won the 1979 Society of West End Theatre Award (now known as Olivier Award) for her portrayal of May in the RSC’s staging of Once in a Lifetime. Also reprising his role from that stage production is David Suchet. The screening is part of the BFI’s season about American playwrights’ work on the British small screen.

Coincidentally, TheKaufmanPlays.com, a tribute to George S. Kaufman and his writings, has published Zoë's recollections of her experience of Once in a Lifetime. Reading, rehearsing and performing the play, she emphasises, made her feel closer to her American roots. In Zoe’s words, ‘I was introduced back to where I came from’.

Another BFI event of interest to Zoë’s fans is the return to the big screen of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (2001), which also forms part of the Maggie Smith season. The film, in which Zoë memorably portrays Quidditch teacher Madam Hooch, will be shown on 22 January (5:50pm) and again on 31 January (3:10pm).

All of the cinema screenings mentioned above will take place at the BFI Southbank in London. Tickets for each are now available, but numbers are very limited, and so I would recommend booking early.

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