The Irish actress will play Silky the fairy who lives on the Magic Faraway Tree in the Enchanted Wood

Nicola Coughlan to star in movie adaptation of Enid Blyton's Magic Faraway Tree

Irish acting star Nicola Coughlan will star in a movie version of Enid Blyton’s The Magic Faraway Tree.

She joins Baby Reindeer actress Jessica Gunning and Lenny Henry, Michael Palin as well as Claire Foy and Andrew Garfield in this feature film about Polly and Tim Thompson and their children, Beth, Joe, and Fran, who find themselves forced to relocate to the remote English countryside. There, the children discover a magical tree and its extraordinary and eccentric occupants.

Nicola Coughlan is back home in Ireland today to launch Bridgerton Season 3. While here she posted info about the upcoming film on her instagram and wrote: “I’m so, so excited to be a part of this movie I can’t even express it, and this cast is so incredible, feel so lucky”.

Coughlan has been cast as the woodland fairy Silky, Nonso Anozie ( Sweet Tooth, Ted Lasso) is the self-appointed group leader Moonface, and Gunning is Dame Washalot. The cast is rounded out by Dustin Demri-Burns ( Slow Horses, The Great) as the Saucepan Man, Mark Heap ( Friday Night Dinner, The School for Good and Evil) as Mr. Oom Boom Boom and Oliver Chris ( Trying, My Lady Jane) as Mr Watzisname.

Lenny Henry, Michael Palin, and Simon Russell Beale will play a trio of mystical wise men from the Land of Know-Alls.

The film is produced by Academy Award-nominee Pippa Harris ( Empire of Light, 1917, Call the Midwife) and Nicolas Brown ( Britannia, Informer, Penny Dreadful) of Neal Street Productions along with Danny Perkins ( Greatest Days) of Elysian Film Group, and Jane Hooks ( Golda, Living).

Luke Newton and Nicola Coughlan outside the Trinity College Dublin Campanile this morning at the launch of Bridgerton Season 3. Picture: Andres Poveda/Netflix

Soon after the family arrives in the countryside, the children discover a magical tree — and its extraordinary and eccentric residents such as Moonface, Silky, Dame Washalot and Saucepan Man. At the top of the tree, they are whisked off to fantastical and spectacular lands and, through the joys and challenges of their adventures, the family learn to reconnect and value each other for the first time in years.