Acting is too much of a drama for Jacqueline!
Amischievous ‘sand sprite’ older than methuselah — and voiced by michael caine — captivated me in the captivity of my home office this week.
he’s the ‘it’ in new film Four Kids And it, based on best-selling author Jacqueline Wilson’s 2012 chart-topper about four schoolchildren who meet at a remote holiday cottage in cornwall.
The children are the offspring of a couple, played by matthew Goode and Paula Patton, divorced from their previous partners, who ambush the youngsters with the news that they are now ‘together’. Teddie-Rose malleson-Allen plays Goode’s bookish daughter Ros. ‘i suppose she’s a bit like me when i was a little girl,’ Wilson noted.
Billy Jenkins plays Ros’s younger brother Robbie. Ashley Aufderheide is cast as brash American teen smash; and ellie-mae siame is her kid sister maudie. The quartet discover the oddlooking, sand-diving Psammead on an isolated beach and, slowly but surely, they all become friends.
The local landowner, played by Russell Brand, is their nemesis.
The enormously enjoyable picture, backed by sky Films and directed by Andy De emmony (who also made current BBc drama The Nest) will be available on sky cinema from April 3.
Wilson, who penned the popular Tracy Beaker books, was inspired to write Four Kids And it because of her love of e. Nesbit’s 1902 fantasy story Five children And it when she was a girl in the 1950s.
She told me: ‘even then it was a bit old-fashioned, but wonderfully written, because it combined realistic children with this fantastic creature who could grant magic wishes,’
Filmmakers gave her a tiny part in the film — and she admitted she did find it tricky playing herself but having to utter lines written by someone else. ‘it’s the weirdest thing,’ she said.
The author spent two or three days on set in ireland and was impressed with the children’s ability to learn lines.
‘All power to them,’ she said enviously. much larks were had during one of the scenes when Brand takes the children around his peculiar mansion full of fantastic stuffed animals. (The place was actually the Natural history museum in Dublin.)
But as much as she loved being part of the filming process, Wilson confessed: ‘i think i’ll stick to my day job... that’s much more my cup of tea.’
That is good news for her many fans. her latest book, Love Frankie, will be ‘readily available online’ in digital and in print form from April 30, she said.
in the meantime, she hasn’t been idle in isolation. her idea of coping is doing her job writing books and watching box sets — currently u.s. sitcom The Good Place, starring Ted Danson and Kristen Bell, all about slightly naughty people being sent to what they think is heaven. ‘it has a black sense of humour, which i think is ripe for the times,’ Wilson told me.
she’s also been tackling a couple of Dickens’ novels she hadn’t read before; re-reading Jane Austen’s emma — and all of Anne Tyler’s oeuvre.
A few years ago Wilson moved to the south east coast and although her new abode had more space, she decided to trim down her collection of 15,000 books. ‘There’s been a slight reduction,’ she said, chuckling.
she estimates her stock is now down to around 10,000, though that figure’s on the uptick again because, as she put it, when it comes to buying stock from online specialist booksellers, ‘i’m just incorrigible’.