Interview With Raffiella Chapman

Raffiella Chapman is a young actor who has been a Jurassic Coast Trust Ambassador since 2016. Raffi has a lifelong love of fossils, dinosaurs and science, and has regularly contributed her Raffi's Rocks  column to the Trust's Go Jurassic Rangers magazine. Raffi is due to star in an upcoming episode of His Dark Materials on BBC One.

Tell us about your new series His Dark Materials - what can we expect?

The series is adapted from the much loved, bestselling book series by Philip Pullman and you can see it on BBC1 in the UK or HBO in the US. Starring Ruth Wilson, James MacAvoy, Lin Manuel Miranda, Anne-Marie Duff and Dafne Keen as the lead character Lyra, it 's a real treat for all the family.

The books are incredible so it 's very exciting to see them brought to life on television. I 'm a huge Philip Pullman fan and was really lucky to meet him in October when I played Lyra in a rehearsed reading with Anne-Marie Duff at the launch of his latest book - The Book of Dust: The Secret Commonwealth. He was every bit as fascinating as I guessed he would be.

What is your role in His Dark Materials?

I play Annie, the tough, cynical leader of a bunch of kidnapped children. I 've loved the books since I first read them when I was eight so getting to be a small part of the series was a dream come true. Annie 's a great character to play and very different to me, I 'm much more positive and optimistic!