J.K. Rowling will join comedian Shazia Mirza and music producer Glyn Johns on the panel of a special extended edition of BBC Radio 4’s The Museum of Curiosity this Christmas. The award-winning radio show, which is hosted by John Lloyd and features guest ‘curator’ Bridget Christie, asks three distinguished guests to donate fascinating exhibits to a vast imaginary Museum.
The programme will air on Monday 23rd December at 6.15pm GMT on BBC Radio 4, and is repeated over the Christmas period.
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child officially opened at Melbourne’s Princess Theatre with a red carpet gala on Saturday 23rd February. The cast, director John Tiffany, writer Jack Thorne, and producers Sonia Friedman and Colin Callender were all on the red carpet to welcome Australian fans to the show.
J.K. Rowling couldn’t attend, but sent the production a note saying: ‘Thank you to the cast and creative team who’ve done such a magnificent job. If I could apparate I’d be there. My heart’s in Oz tonight!’
The multi-award-winning theatrical event is exclusive to Melbourne in Australia and is currently booking at the newly renovated Princess Theatre until December 2019.
This is the third continent that the eighth story is opening to, as it continues to entertain and delight audiences in London and New York. The show received its world premiere in July 2016 at the Palace Theatre in London’s West End, and opened at the Lyric Theatre on Broadway in April 2018. It will open in San Francisco in 2019 and in Hamburg 2020, which will be the first non-English language production of the Cursed Child.
For the latest news and information about Cursed Child in Melbourne, head over to the Cursed Child website or www.pottermore.com.
On 8th May 2012, J.K. Rowling was granted the Freedom of the City of London. The Freedom of the City of London is one of the oldest surviving traditional ceremonies still in existence today. It’s believed that the first Freedom was presented in 1237.
The medieval term ‘freeman’ referred to someone who was not beholden to a feudal lord, but enjoyed privileges such as the right to earn money and own land. Town dwellers who were protected by the charter of their town or city were often free – hence the term ‘Freedom of the City’.
In 2001, J.K. Rowling received the Order of the British Empire (OBE) from His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, for services to children’s literature.