Little Women’s pretty women
FOUR rising stars will join acting royalty for the BBC’s version of Little Women.
Angela Lansbury, Michael Gambon and Emily Watson have meaty roles in the classic, adapted by Call the Midwife’s Heidi Thomas.
But the four March sisters are played by relative unknowns. Kathryn Newton, 20, who starred in Big Little Lies, is Amy; Maya Hawke, the 18-year-old daughter of film stars Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke, plays tomboy Jo; Willa Fitzgerald, 26, from Scream: The TV Series, gets the role of Meg; while Welsh actress Annes Elwy, 24, will be musically gifted Beth. Writer Heidi says: “There could be no better time to revisit the story of a family striving for happiness in an uncertain world.” BAFTA-winner Watson, 50, is the March family matriarch Marmee, while Gambon, 76, plays kindly neighbour Mr Laurence.
Lansbury, 91, is perfectly cast as cantankerous Aunt March.
The three-part drama is expected to air at Christmas. The latest version of Louisa May Alcott’s classic novel, to mark its 150th anniversary in 2018, tells of four sisters growing up without their father during the American Civil War.
But BBC drama boss Piers Wenger declared: “I want a strong streak of Britishness to run through everything we do.” Er, right you are then.