AS the new Disney film Tinker Bell and the Secret of the Wings is released, the star behind one of the voices has visited St Albans to spread a little fairy magic.

Angellica Bell, reporter for The One Show, plays the part of a frost fairy in the film, released in cinemas on December 14.

She was recently at Heartwood Forest in Sandridge to help launch a guide for parents to show them ways of making the woods and going outside in winter fun for children.

Disney partnered with the Woodland Trust to come up with the Disney Fairies Guide to Winter.

Angellica said: “I’m a mum now and I completely adore the whole ethos of Disney and what it does for families and the magic it creates for young children.

“I think winter sometimes gets a bit of bad press; people just think it’s cold, it’s miserable and so they stay indoors.

“Actually, it’s a really fantastic season – there are animals about, plants to discover and so much to see.”

Angellica said it was “very exciting” taking part in the Disney movie.

Her career began in 2000 at Children’s BBC, and she has gone on to become a television presenter and recently took part in adventure show 71 Degrees North on ITV1 – a role she initially gave a “flat no” to.

She explained: “I wasn’t that keen on the cold.”

But she gave in and ended up seeing the Northern Lights twice, which she describes as “magical, like fairies were there”.

She went on: “With The One Show, I’ve done lots of filming of other people doing voices and how sounds work on film, so for me to have a part in a big Disney film is incredible.

“It’s really mad because I thought I’m going to do this and Elijah, my son, will one day watch it and he’ll be like, ‘oh my gosh, my mum’s in that’ and he’ll probably think that’s really cool and everything else I’ve done is rubbish.”

The presenter, who lives with her son and husband in Richmond, admitted it was “bizarre” that she ended up on kids’ television as she has a degree in politics.

Although she intended becoming a lawyer, she changed her mind after temping at the BBC.

She said: “I started exploring different things. I had done a lot of acting at school and at uni and public speaking. I think I was lucky and just fell into it.

“There are some people who really want to be famous, really want to be a TV presenter. I just sort of did it and got on with it.”

The Disney Fairies Guide to Winter includes activities for children aged six to nine, and is available to download at www.disney.co.uk/fairies

n Pupils from four local schools recently helped scatter the seeds of more than 60,000 hazelnuts and hundreds of thousands of native trees at Heartwood Forest.

The youngsters, from Cunningham Hill, The Grove, Bernards Heath and Wheatfields infant schools helped sow the seeds of England’s largest new native forest.