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LYNCH: I HAD MY OWN MISS HONEY

Dahl’s story is a favourite — and it speaks to us very closely, say stars

Robert Dex Arts Correspondent

Inspiration: Matilda star Lashana Lynch told how one of her teachers was her childhood hero

TWO of the stars of Matilda said their own childhood experiences inspired them to join the cast as it premiered on the opening night of the London Film Festival.

The film is based on the hit musical version of Roald Dahl’s best-selling children’s book which has played to sell-out audiences in the West End.

Bond star Lashana Lynch, who plays kindly teacher Miss Honey, said: “Miss Honey was my childhood hero; I had my own Miss Honey also and she is just such an incredible character.”

Comedian Sindhu Vee, who plays the librarian Mrs Phelps, said: “I love the story, I love the book, I’ve seen the musical eight times because I have three kids, and I love the idea of being the librarian because there was a librarian in my life who let me read books instead of walk the playground and get bullied.

“I had a terrible stammer as a child and I was the only non-Caucasian child. It speaks to me very, very closely.”

The film, which is released in November, is directed by Old Vic chief Matthew Warchus and stars Dame Emma Thompson as bullish Miss Trunchbull while Stephen Graham and Andrea Riseborough play the trashy, money-obsessed Mr and Mrs Wormwood.

The film’s 13-year-old star Alisha Weir, who takes the title role, said she learned on set by “watching everything” her more established co-stars did. She admitted she burst into “happy and grateful” tears when she was told she had got the part. She said: “I have always loved Matilda, it has just always been one of my favourites. I just can’t believe it, I don’t know when it will sink in but it’s mad to think that I’m Matilda.”

The festival will close with Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery starring Daniel Craig. Other films on show include the world premiere of Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio starring Ewan McGregor and the European premiere of Sam Mendes’ Empire of Light, with a cast led by Olivia Colman and Colin Firth.

MATILDA is the first musical to open the London Film Festival and this adaptation of the mega-successful West End show is brightly coloured, though full of darkness, exuberantly performed and inventively shot.

Many adults will likely become restless when Emma Thompson (as headmistress Miss Trunchbull) is off screen, but for under-12s, the movie offers one jolt of joy after another. As the somewhat ungainly title suggests, director Matthew Warchus’s offering is inspired by Roald Dahl’s 1988 book, which was adapted for the stage by the Royal Shakespeare Company. And, as in the book, Matilda (Irish newcomer Alisha Weir), is a prodigious youngster locked in a battle with tyrants, both at home and at school. Her parents, Mr and Mrs Wormwood (Stephen Graham and Andrea Riseborough), are self-absorbed bullies. Just as vile is Trunchbull (Thompson is barely recognisable under prosthetics), head of Crushem Hall. But Matilda has a kind and intelligent teacher in Miss Honey, played by Lashana Lynch, who is adorable and moving, particularly when singing My House.

When our iconoclastic heroine discovers she has telekenetic powers, we hope: might Matilda have what it takes to create a happy ending for those she loves?

The show’s naughty songs, thought up by Tim Minchin in 2010, show no signs of ageing. Like the titular heroine, the ditties are touched by genius, with Miracle, The Hammer and The Smell of Rebellion the obvious standouts. Thompson and Warchus have an especially good time with that last one.

Highlights include the two children with Down’s Syndrome who appear in a montage about doted-on infants (that’s not something we’re used to seeing in a big budget film), and all the bits with lovely librarian Mrs Phelps (Sindhu Vee). She encourages Matilda to tell stories, about an escapologist and his acrobat wife (Carl Spencer and Lauren Alexandra), which unfold before our eyes.

In some ways, this film is deeply conventional. Matilda is raised by

Cockneys yet sounds like a boarder at a Putney prep school.

You expect that kind of thing from a film like Oliver!, but it’s 2022.

Warchus’s wonderful 2014 movie

Pride was a more consistently involving affair. But that he and the rest of the Matilda the Musical team have kept so much of the show’s bite remains impressive. The best moments are extraordinary and

Trunchbull will haunt my dreams.

• Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical will be in cinemas from November 25

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2022-10-06T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-10-06T07:00:00.0000000Z

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