Interview with Beth Bradfield from Malory Towers

[image error]image: a side by side collage of two people smiling. On the l on the left is a woman in her late 30s with a ref face and short dark hair tied back, wearing a floral blouse. On the right is a w young woman in her teens, with fair skin and long brown hair, wearing a blue and white striped top. At the top of the photo is “Beth Bradfield chats with Carly Findlay” in white on aqua, and the ABC logo which is like a three point infinity sigh .

I am SO proud of this – a little video interview I did with Beth Bradfield from Malory Towers for ABC Life.

An adaptation of Enid Blyton’s Malory Towers books has been made for TV – filmed in both the UK and Canada.

Beth is AMAZING! Lots of people wrote to me to tell me I must watch Malory Towers – for the positive representation of facial difference – and I was blown away! I pitched an article about incidental inclusion in film and TV to the ABC, and @bhakthi came back and suggested this video. It was a joy to chat to Beth – we chatted for 25 minutes or so all up, and I was smiling the whole time. She is a star – so insightful and smart and an incredible role model for young people in the arts!

A big thanks to BBC Children, King Bert Productions and Beth’s Dad, Robin for working with me on this too.

You can watch Malory Towers on ABC Iview in Australia. It’s so good – nostalgic and feminist and funny – perfect for 2020.

Video: an interview between two people – a woman in her late 30s with a red face and short dark hair tied back, wearing a colourful floral blouse, and a young woman in her teens, with fair skin and long dark brown hair, wearing a blue and white striped collared top. The video also features scenes from Malory Towers.

Beth sent me some extra interviews after our chat.

Changing Faces

Interview with Beth’s Dad Robin

Beth recently played Jean in the new @cbbc Malory Towers.

Here she talks about filming the show, the incredible reaction from viewers, and why other young people with visible differences who want to act should 'go for it'.

Watch the series