On the way to Yangon (Rangoon) we read many articles about Aung San Suu Kyi, or The Lady as she is known.

I wonder about the possibilities for development under a military dictatorship. The human rights record in this country has been so appalling for so long, none of us can quite imagine what or how anything gets done.

The reason ActionAid is welcome in a country which admits far fewer international charities than most, is on account of its excellent work in 2008 after a cyclone called Nargis hit the country, killing 150,000.

ActionAid had been working in Burma since 2006, developing young leaders through what they call the Fellowship Programme. These young people were able to get into devastated communities and help to rebuild them.

The question of what to call this country is a vexed one. Exiles, not wishing to accept the name given to their beloved home by the junta, call it Burma. But we are told everyone who lives there now calls it Myanmar…

Behind some rundown sixties buildings rise the golden turrets of the Shwedagon Pagoda. There are a million celibate monks here, and half a million nuns….

We are sitting barefoot on the floor with all the staff, talking. Shihab is so impressed with the Fellows that now ActionAid wants to work exclusively with them. [My son] Tindy is excited about meeting them, “because I am young too!” he hisses at me pointedly. “Are there any old Fellows?” I ask. “No,” says Shihab.

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It’s not a Mary Poppins remake or sequel or reboot. Given the reaction we got from many readers the last time we shared news about this project, I thought that should be said upfront. Based on a “Black List” script by Kelly Marcel, Saving Mr. Banks will tell the story of how Walt Disney obtained the movie rights to Mary Poppins from the story’s author P.L. Travers. Apparently, this was no easy feat, and took fourteen years for Disney to accomplish.

Back in February, we learned that Tom Hanks was rumored to be up for the role of Walt Disney in the picture, and Meryl Streep was a possibility for the role of Travers. Variety posted an update today, stating that Tom Hanks is in talks to play Disney, while Emma Thompson is negotiating to play the part of Travers. While it would have been great to see Streep starring opposite Hanks in just about anything, Thompson’s certainly a solid alternative. And it’ll be very interesting to see Hanks’ take on Disney, assuming things work out, and he’s officially brought on board to star.

The Disney project is set to be directed by John Lee Hancock. In addition to helming The Rookie and The Blindside, Hancock’s also among those credited for penning the screenplay for the upcoming Snow White and the Huntsman. ?

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EXCLUSIVE: The Kids Are Alright executive producer J Todd Harris produces with 2B Pictures and South Creek Pictures.

British actress Emma Thompson is once again attached to play a character inspired by renowned human rights lawyer Gareth Peirce in US-UK-Canada love-story-thriller The Secret Evidence, which is currently at script stage.

The Middle East- and London-set drama follows a young British couple mistakenly caught up in the war on terror who turn to Thompson’s character to get one of them out of prison.

However, in fighting for her boyfriend’s freedom, the film’s young female lead finds herself and her family subject to attack from the UK Government’s secret service.

Thompson was Oscar-nominated for her previous portrayal of Peirce, the defence lawyer of Irish terror suspects the Guildford Four, in Jim Sheridan’s acclaimed 1993 drama In the Name of the Father.

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Oscar-winning actress Emma Thompson is to portray the Queen in a TV drama based on Michael Fagan’s Buckingham Palace intrusion 30 years ago.

Entitled Walking The Dogs, the film will tell the tale of how Fagan gained entry to the palace and entered the Queen’s bedroom in 1982.

Eddie Marsan and Russell Tovey will also star in the dramatisation.

The film, to be screened later this year, is part of a new drama series for Sky Arts called Playhouse Presents.

Brenda Blethyn, Stephen Fry, Richard E Grant and Sheila Hancock have also been lined up to star in new dramas that have been commissioned for the channel.

It has also been announced that veteran chat show host Sir Michael Parkinson is to return to TV, four years after he retired.

The star, who bowed out from his ITV series in 2007, is to front a six-part series called Masterclass with Michael Parkinson.

The show will focus on a different star each week and Sir Michael will uncover how they perfected their art.

The 76-year-old said he was “delighted” to have landed the new role.

The series will be filmed in front of a studio audience, who will also be able to ask questions.

Channel director James Hunt described Sir Michael as “one of our country’s finest broadcasters”.

He added: “This new interview series will allow Sir Michael to get closer than ever before to his subject, extracting the essence of their character in a way that only he can.”

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Two time Oscar nominee Emma Thompson is in final negotiations to star in supernatural love story Beautiful Creatures. Directed by Richard LaGravenese (P.S. I Love You) from his own adaptation of the New York Times best selling novel of the same name, Thompson will join current Oscar nominee Viola Davis as well as newcomers Jack O’Connell and Alice Englert.Thompson will play the dual role of Mrs. Lincoln, a small town religious zealot, and Sarafine, who is the dark witch who possesses her. Erwin Stoff (I Am Legend) will produce along with Kosove and Johnson (The Book of Eli) and Molly Smith (P.S. I Love You). Thompson will next be seen in Sony’s MIB3, the third installment in the Men in Black franchise due out in May. Alcon, which has film rights to all three books in the series published by Little Brown Books is looking at Creatures to launch a possible franchise at Warner Bros. Filming will begin in April in and around New Orleans. Alcon recently produced Dolphin Tale, a 3-D family film starring Morgan Freeman, Harry Connick Jr., Ashley Judd and Kris Kristofferson. Thompson is repped by WME.

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