Zoë – and this website – at 21

16 August 2023 17:37

As zoewanamaker.com’s regular visitors will know, the website recently celebrated its 21st birthday (hooray and oh, my goodness!)

That milestone got me thinking... Wouldn’t it be fantastic to see Zoë around the age of 21, when she was at the very beginning of her professional acting career?

To that end, Zoë and her PA, Vanessa, have kindly provided a lovely photo from that exciting time in her life. Here’s Zoë as a fledgling actress with so many wonderful roles on the horizon. (You can click on the image to see a larger version.)

And to round off this article, here’s a photo that’ll be of much less interest to Zoë’s fans, but it felt fitting to include it. The photo shows me at 21, just after I’d finished my final exams at university. I’d only been running the website for four years at that point. Time flies!

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Brighton's arts strand The Space to interview Zoë

31 July 2023 13:13

Zoë Wanamaker fans in the Brighton area of the UK will want to make sure Thursday 19 October is highlighted in their diaries. Excitingly, on that date Zoë will be interviewed for The Space, the collective name for a series of arts, culture and media happenings held in the city.

The event will start at 7:30pm; the venue is Brighton's Latest Music Bar. According to The Space's website, Zoe's interview will be pretty informal and followed by a Q&A session with input from the audience. So if there's something you'd love to ask Zoë, this is your chance!

Her fellow interviewee at the event will be Harvey Goldsmith, the well-known performing arts promoter. The Space's creator and culture expert, Wayne Imms, will be the interviewer.

Tickets are on sale now (scroll down The Space's homepage to find the details).

With thanks to Vanessa for her help

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21 years of zoewanamaker.com

30 July 2023 10:18

Today, 30 July 2023, marks a real milestone for zoewanamaker.com. The website has reached the grand old age of 21! It’s now several years older than I was when I started beavering away on this project in 2002. Can’t quite get my head around how much time has passed.

In that time, I’ve collected a great deal of material related to Zoë’s wonderful, varied career (with the aim of sharing much of it with you all on this site). To celebrate zoewanamaker.com’s 21st anniversary, below is a recent addition to the archive: a group of lovely press photos from that fan favourite, Love Hurts, the early 90s BBC drama in which Zoë starred with the late, great Adam Faith.

All that remains is for me to say a sincere thank you to Zoë, her PA Vanessa, my long-suffering family and every fan who visits this site.

Liz xx

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Zoë talks of ‘deep respect’ for David Bowie as BBC airs Baal

27 July 2023 14:11

In case you missed the BBC’s rare broadcast of Baal yesterday (26 July), as well as Zoë’s interview about acting alongside David Bowie, both programmes are now available to UK viewers on the BBC iPlayer.

In Zoë Wanamaker Remembers... Bowie and Baal, Zoë speaks vividly and beautifully, her words interspersed with clips from the 1982 TV version of Brecht’s play, in which she plays Sophie, one of Baal's unlucky lovers. She points out that the iconic late musician was brave to take on the role of artist-poet Baal, as the character is the amoral centre of an incredibly challenging drama. Fittingly, Baal is part of the BBC’s Landmark Drama collection: a group of programmes that, the broadcaster says, ‘changed TV – and Britain – forever’.

Zoë found Bowie ‘very smart and quick and kind’. ‘I felt deep respect for him,’ she emphasises. She also held the drama’s ‘brilliant’ late director, Alan Clarke, in high regard. Zoe admired his clear vision for filming the stark play and turning it into a ‘forward-thinking and brave’ piece of TV.

As the interview draws to a close, Zoë reflects on what this performance of Baal might mean to viewers today, particularly those who weren’t around in the early 1980s. She emphasises that she’d ‘be fascinated to hear what people say’ now about this 41-year-old programme, which still has the power to capture people’s attention.

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Zoë discusses working with David Bowie on Baal

22 July 2023 23:24

BBC Four is gearing up to broadcast the 1982 TV version of Baal, the bleak but compelling Brecht play about a destructive artist-poet, on Wednesday 26 July (11:05pm – 12:10am). It’s legendary late musician David Bowie in the title role, while Zoë plays Sophie, one of Baal’s unlucky lovers.

The BBC has released this fantastic photo of Sophie; I’d never seen it before.

As David Bowie News points out, Baal being broadcast is particularly exciting because it’s the first time the BBC has shown the programme – from the acclaimed director Alan Clarke – since it originally aired 41 years ago (though it was screened by the BFI during its 30th anniversary year and has been released on DVD and Blu-ray). Baal is part of a BBC Four season celebrating feature-length classic dramas.

Just before Baal begins, we’ll be treated to a short interview with Zoë. Zoë Wanamaker Remembers... Bowie and Baal can be seen from 10:55-11:05pm. I think I'm almost looking forward to this even more than seeing Baal again, as it's always fascinating to hear Zoe's insights about working on screen. I wonder what memories are most vivid when she looks back on working with Bowie in the 80s.

So, just to be clear, that's Zoe's interview first and Baal directly after.

Revisiting The Man Who Fell to Earth

And how about continuing the Zoe-plus-David-Bowie theme by watching or re-watching The Man Who Fell to Earth (2022)?

This fascinating, beautifully produced TV series, which is available from iTunes, builds on the 70s film of the same name starring Bowie. Zoë plays the enigmatic Watt (pictured above), who helps Faraday (played by Chiwetel Ejiofor), an alien on a mission to save his planet, with some vital research.

With thanks to Karoline for her help

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