The Big Smoke waved fond farewell to the 57th BFI London Film Festival with a second helping of Tom Hanks in a fortnight. This time in the company of his Saving Mr. Banks co-star Emma Thompson, Ruth Wilson and Colin Farrell, Hanks' very presence made the Leicester Square throngs feel 27 per cent better about life as he shared the good word on Disney's Oscar-tipped drama.
Hanks, patrolling the red carpet with a cuppa in hand, talked about playing Walt Disney and his one-eyed quest for the rights to P.L. Travers' Mary Poppins tales. The challenge? The oft-irascible Travers (Thompson) will not be seduced by his fairy tale palaces and access to Goofy's snack drawer. She's made of sterner stuff: a little like Poppins herself.
"What was fun was inhabiting someone who refused to let the fairy dust work," Thompson told the BBC. "I loved her belligerence, I loved playing her rudeness, and her honesty."
Saving Mr. Banks is out in the UK on November 29 and well worth marking your diary for. Empire's review can be found here and you can find a viewers' guide of Hanks' career here.