Anne-Marie Mallik

Anne-Marie Mallik (born Barbara Anne-Marie Mallik in Fordingbridge, Hampshire, on 10 September 1952),[1] later Mrs. Anne-Marie Huxstep,[2] is a British former child actor who played the title role in Jonathan Miller’s production for BBC Television of Alice in Wonderland that was broadcast on 28 December 1966.

Mallik as Alice

Mallik was the daughter of a barrister.[3] Alice, whom she played when she was thirteen, was her only known professional role, although Miller's adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s mid-19th century fantasy, with its star-studded cast and gothic and bohemian overtones, created quite a stir at the time.[4] Miller had envisaged an Alice "with no stage experience, not very pretty but curiously plain, sallow and a bit priggish"[5] After advertising the part, he cast Mallik within twenty minutes of meeting her, having asked her (as Mallik recalled) to recite the poem "You Are Old, Father William" which Alice performs for the Caterpillar. Miller's first impression of her was of a "rather extraordinary, solemn child" who proved to be "naturally expressive" and "not amused by anything [she was] surrounded by".[6] In similar, though less complimentary, vein, the biographer of Peter Cook, who played the Mad Hatter, has described Mallik's Alice as "a sullen, pouting, pubescent with no sense of bewilderment", noting also that, in his view, "the whole piece was strangely lacking in either humour or fear".[7]

Mallik's return to obscurity after Alice was such that, in 1986, the BBC had difficulty tracking her down to pay a repeat fee.[8] She was, by then, a naval wife, living in Southsea, and was located only after a newspaper reader recognised a photograph of her.[9] A DVD of Alice was released by the British Film Institute in 2003[10] and, in 2012, Mallik appeared in conversation with Miller (their first meeting since 1966) in a BBC Arena programme about Miller’s life and work. Among other things, Mallik recalled that, making Alice, she was not awed by the distinguished cast because she had been used to mingling with friends of her "much older" parents who had achieved distinction in their careers.[11]

Family and later career

Mallik married a naval officer. They had four children. Although she told Jonathan Miller in 2012 that she had been "hugely glad" to have played Alice,[12] she never contemplated an acting career and went into banking.[1][13] Anne-Marie Mallik hails from a famous family of Calcutta, India. Her father was Joypaul Mallik son of Manmatha Chandra Vasu Mallik and belongs to the famous Vasu Mallik family of Calcutta, and migrated to England. Raja Subodh Mallik of Kolkata was his nephew (son of his elder brother Probodh Chandra). The family is known for its patriotism and contribution to India's freedom movement. The movement against partition of Bengal in 1905 was mainly directed from the family's ancestral house in Calcutta under the leadership of Arabinda Ghose.

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References
  1. "Anne-Marie Mallik". IMDb.com. Retrieved 2016-05-12.
  2. Arena, BBC 2, 31 March 2012
  3. Philip Kemp, sleeve notes for BFI DVD, 2003
  4. See, for example, the diametrically opposed opinions of Leslie Halliwell and Philip Purser in Halliwell's Television Companion (3rd ed. 1986). In addition, the press was quick to seize on the irony of the BBC's decision that the production was unsuitable for children: Kemp, loc.cit.
  5. Quoted by Philip Kemp, loc.cit.
  6. Jonathan Miller and Anne-Marie Huxstep, Arena, 31 March 2012
  7. Harry Thompson (1997) Peter Cook: a Biography
  8. Alice was shown again as part of a season to mark the 50th anniversary of BBC television.
  9. The Times, 31 October 1986
  10. BFIVD519 (2003)
  11. Arena, 31 March 2012
  12. Arena, loc. cit.
  13. The Times, 31 October 1986
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