The Young Visiters (Author's spelling) DVD and book

The Young Visiters, or Mr. Salteena's Plan

I just stumbled across the film The Young Visiters from 2003 on the BBC Canada website  and I had to find out more about it. After all, look at the DVD cover. It stars Jim Broadbent and Hugh Laurie! How bad could it be? And then I find out that it also stars Bill Nighy, Geoffrey Palmer, Sophie Thompson and Sally Hawkins. Awesome! But what is it about?

The Young Visiters written by 9 year old Daisy Ashford in 1890

It is a hilarious story written by a 9 year old Victorian girl Daisy Ashford in 1890 (with rather creative and variable spelling) about a young girl Ethel Monticue, who meets Mr. Salteena, "an elderly man of 42", who falls in love with her at first sight and promises to introduce her to high society. Only one problem... he only knows one aristocrat by the name of Lord Bernard Clark! Hilarity ensues.

Daisy Ashford, authoress and child prodigy

I shan't say any more about this except that it is adorable and very "BBC", so very well done. So if you would like to travel back in time through the imagination of a little girl, this is the DVD for you. And now excuse me while I go order the book for Christmas. Apparently, it has never been out of print.

P.S. This would be perfect to watch or read WITH a similar little girl with a good imagination.

Sophie Thompson- Actor of the Week

Sophie Thompson onstage in Clybourne Park

Sophie Thompson is one of my absolute favourite actresses. Her smile and her eyes are so expressive and she seems to truly inhabit every role she is in. She comes from a very talented family, as Emma Thompson is her sister and Phyllida Law is her mother. But she is a force onscreen in her own right.

Sophie Thompson as Lydia in Four Weddings and a Funeral

Bernard: How's it going, Lyds?
Lydia: Bloody awful.
Bernard: Oh dear, what's the problem?
Lydia: I was promised sex. Everybody said it. You'll be a bridesmaid, you'll get sex, you'll be fighting 'em off. But not so much as a tongue in sight.
Bernard: Well, I mean, if you fancy anything, I could always...
Lydia: Oh, don't be ridiculous, Bernard. I'm not that desperate.

Sophie Thompson as Miss Bates in Emma with her mother Phyllida Law as Mrs. Bates

  
Miss Bates: It left us speechless, quite speechless I tell you, and we have not stopped talking of it since.

Sophie Thompson as Mary Musgrove in Persuasion

Mary Musgrove: Are you coming in, Henrietta, or is my cottage insufficiently grand for you?

Sophie Thompson (second from left) as Dorothy in Gosford Park

Dorothy: I believe in love. Not just getting it, but giving it. I think that if you're able to love someone, even if they don't know it, even if they can't love you back, then it's worth it. 

Sophie Thompson as Mafalda Hopkirk in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

She even got a small part in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 as Mafalda Hopkirk. And she also plays Hermione Granger pretending to be Mafalda Hopkirk...oh, it's complicated!

Emma and Sophie Thompson as teenagers

In the old family photo above, you can see that although there is a family resemblance, their eyes are totally different. Sophie has the wide open eyes that gave Lydia from Four Weddings and a Funeral her wonderful look.

Sophie Thompson and Richard Lumsden at the Olivier Awards 2011 (Sophie was nominated)

Sophie lives with her husband Richard Lumsden in London with their sons Ernie and Walter. She met Richard on the set of Sense and Sensibility. He played the coxcomb Robert Ferrars, brother to Hugh Grant's character Edward Ferrars. Her sister Emma married Greg Wise, who played Willoughby in S&S.  Up until recently, she lived on the same street as her mother and her sister. She moved all of a mile away!

I am now going to pop in my recently arrived DVD and see her in The Young Visiters (written by a 9 year old, hence the spelling). Also starring Jim Broadbent and Hugh Laurie, I can't wait to see if she is frumpy or glam. She can do it all!