The Grove Hotel is an absolutely gorgeous estate in the Hertfordshire countryside in London, England. It also has 300 acres of woods surrounding it, which look especially stunning in winter. What's more? This hotel is also situated very close to the Warner Brothers Studio Tour London - The Making of Harry Potter. By booking at The Grove, tickets for the tour are automatically included! Live far or can't afford it? Luckily, RadioTimes is giving away a one night stay for a special winner and their one guest. The winner will also receive free breakfast and a two-person meal at The Glasshouse restaurant.
This giveaway is perfect for Potter fans to enjoy a lovely stay there as well as the enjoyment of the closeness of the Warner Bros. Studio.
To enter, you must first register at the RadioTimes website and then answer a few questions, which can be seen here.
Will you enter to win a night at The Grove, an easy drive away from the Studio Tour? Have you ever stayed there? Let us know below! Good luck to all!
Hogwarts Radio is the newest edition to MuggleNet’s podcast family but certainly not a new show. The show has been broadcasting worldwide since August 1, 2008, and just received its fifth overall nomination for the Podcast Awards. We have just over 142 episodes, an incredible panel, deep discussions, and wildly entertaining segments. The show currently has nine full time hosts: Adam Bromberg, Kristen Keys, Jeanna Marie, Terrance Pinkston, Marissa Reynolds, Rebecca Schroeder, Eric Scull, Greyson Smith, and Mary Smith.
The idea for Hogwarts Radio was brought to life by lead host Terrance Pinkston, who had a passion for talking Potter and wanted to share it with the world. He quickly brought on five other people who shared that same passion for the series, and the show quickly amassed a following. Just two months after its creation, Hogwarts Radio was nominated for a 2008 Podcast Award in the Cultural/Arts category. Although the show didn’t win that year, Hogwarts Radio certainly garnered the attention of the podcasting community. In January 2009, the show partnered with HPANA, and since then they have done several live shows at conventions, hosted live events on ustream, and even had Potter actors on the show. Hogwarts Radio was taken under the wing of MuggleNet and officially joined the site as MuggleNet's General Entertainment Podcast in August 2013. Today, the show is the most followed Harry Potter podcast on Twitter.
Hogwarts Radio is committed to give you a weekly dose of Harry Potter in a fun, enjoyable, unscripted format that will always make you laugh! We cannot thank you enough for getting us this far, but we’re not done yet. Voting opens in just a few days, and we really need your help in locking up our category, Best Produced. Remember, you can vote once a day EVERY DAY! Let’s show the world that Harry Potter fans still mean business!
Let’s get the MuggleNet Army - Dumbledore’s Army - out in full force and voting for our shows! Share, Like, retweet, reblog, repost… you know the drill. Thank you so much for your continuing support!
We're now only a couple of weeks away from being able to watch David Bradley's turn as William Hartnell in An Adventure in Space and Time, but to tide you over the actor has spoken to the BBC about what it has been like to play this iconic role.
William Hartnell was the first actor to don the title of "Doctor" on the now-classic show, and stepping into the shoes of Hartnell has given Bradley some insight into the older actor's career and personality.
It has to be said, after some initial reluctance to do something for children’s TV I think [Hartnell] was quickly convinced that it was the right thing for him to do. He felt quite insecure about it as it was new territory for him, but once he started he embraced the whole idea of the part... I know he had a reputation at times for being cantankerous and rather difficult, and one has to play that. It was clear from research and hearing his colleagues talk about him that he was a perfectionist. He demanded a lot of himself, and he expected everyone around him to show the same level of commitment.
He was invited to school fetes in the full outfit, and I thought how brilliant and touching that was. It’s clear that he absolutely loved it and found it very hard to let go. That’s an element that Mark Gatiss brings out in the script... I think maybe when people joined the show later, different directors and different actors, if they showed a lack of commitment then it would upset him, and he would let people know that’s how he felt. There are moments of sadness in Space and Time where he becomes aware that he hasn’t got the strength to do it anymore.
Bradley, who grew up watching Doctor Who, also spoke up about how he thinks current Doctor Matt Smith compares to earlier Doctors like Hartnell, saying,
I really admire him as a Doctor. He’s got that curiosity and that slight eccentricity that the part requires, not in the same way as Bill Hartnell, but I think some of those characteristics have gone all the way through everyone [who]'s played the Doctor.
Finally, Bradley added that playing William Hartnell has been the experience of a lifetime.
It’s been one of those great jobs and an experience I’ll always remember. We’re honouring something that’s been part of television history for 50 years, and I hope I’ve done justice to an actor [whom] I admire greatly.
Will you be tuning into An Adventure in Space and Time? Let us know in the comments!
It has been announced that Daniel Radcliffe is set to play Olympic runner Sebastian Coe in an upcoming drama, Gold. The film will tell the story of Coe's rilvalry with fellow runner Steve Ovett leading up to the 1980 Olympics.
The script for Gold was co-written by Simon Beaufoy, who won an Oscar for Slumdog Millionaire, and Will Davies and will be directed by James Watkins, who previously worked with Dan on 2012's The Woman in Black. Beaufoy is not shy about expressing his belief that the story of Coe and Ovett will make a remarkable film, saying of the athletes:
I hadn't realised how good it was until you dig into their past... they were fantastically different athletes and different people. And they rarely met... apart from on the track - but not very often, even on the track.
Gold is set to begin filming next April.
It sounds like Dan is taking on yet another challenging role, one unlike what we've seen him in before! How do you think he'll do at portraying an Olympic runner?
It's time for another awesome MuggleNet giveaway! This time we are partnering with Vimeo to bring The Sweet Shop starring Matthew Lewis to your home - for free!
The Sweet Shop was filmed approximately two years but was delayed due to the untimely passing of the lead actor, Seb. It has been making the festival rounds this year and was recently an Official Selection at the 2013 London Film Festival. Matt plays "The Reporter," an ambitious journalist who seeks to get the scoop on the lead character.
A fifteen-year-old boy from an English village leaves home to escape his abusive father, never finishing the latest song he'd been working on. Twelve years later, Jarvis Marshall is a famous rock star with a supermodel girlfriend. He has money, he has fame, and he's returning to the village for the first time, racked with guilt over the recent death of his estranged mother. Once home, he finds comfort in the company of Katie Powell, the village beauty who runs the local Sweet Shop, as he tries to come to terms with his turbulent past and what seems an uncertain future. And he starts writing the song again. Dogged by a tenacious music journalist, can Jarvis and Katie find a way to just be together? Can Jarvis step off the fame merry-go-round long enough to find his feet in the real world? In the end, Jarvis has to find a way to finish the song, to come to terms with his guilt, and to make a new start if he hasn't left it too late.
The movie is now exclusively on Vimeo on Demand, and we want you to watch it! Enter below to win one of TWENTY free codes to rent and watch the film. In the meantime, check out our review of the feature over on the MuggleNet Blog.
As you may have recently heard, MuggleNet and its family of diverse podcasts was nominated for FOUR People's Choice Podcast Awards! The annual show is in it's ninth year, and we at MuggleNet are honored to once again be a part of the festivities. Over the next three days we will be featuring each of our podcasts as a way to prepare and inform you for the upcoming voting period that begins on November 1st. Today we present Alohomora!, our global book club - or reread, as we like to call it.
Alohomora! was the brain child of former staff member Noah Fried, who came up with the idea late one night while studying abroad in Florence, Italy. He was thinking about new and exciting things that he could bring to MuggleNet, to help the fans keep in touch with Potter long after the books had been released, and he immediately thought of a reread: fans from all over the world reading the same chapter at the same time and talking about it in a whole new way. Thus, Alohomora! was born.
He presented the idea to a few staff members, and the project immediately grew from just a reread to a large companion section, including forums, essays, and editorials (affectionately known as Quibbles), to a podcast which would include not only in depth discussion but also an outlet for fans themselves to join in on the discussion like never before. Fans would join the regular hosts ON THE SHOW and thus would become part of the show. Alohomora! was launched in April 2012 and since then has had 1,000,000 downloads, done live shows on two continents at three fan conventions, and had special guests on the show such as author & Time critic Lev Grossman, Potter Lexicon creator Steve Vander Ark, and Potter cast alumni such as Warwick Davis, Ellie Darcey-Alden, and Benedict Clarke.
Alohomora! and its team of six hosts - Caleb, Eric, Kat, Laura, Michael, and Rosie - are beyond honored and excited to be nominated for two People's Choice Podcast Awards in the categories of "People's Choice" and "Entertainment" - categories won thrice before by MuggleCast.
There is some stiff competition this year, but come November 1st go out and VOTE for the MuggleNet family and show the world that Harry Potter is still relevent, nay, THRIVING.
Let's bring the trophies back to where they belong - with MuggleNet - the world's #1 Harry Potter site! VOTE MUGGLENET on November 1st!
April 25, 2008 - Warner Bros. announces Harry Potter: The Exhibition, "a state-of-the-art exhibition highlighting artifacts from the Warner Bros. films based on J.K. Rowling's beloved book series" to open in Spring 2009.
You'd better hope Creevy doesn't meet Ginny, or they'll be starting a Harry Potter Fan Club.
Ron Weasley Chamber of Secrets
So many fans visit King's Cross station to take pictures of platforms 9 and 10 that the station management erected a sign that says 'Platform 9 3/4 which, in the Potter books, is invisible to Muggles but acts as a gateway for witches and wizards.
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