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Julia Hills (born 3 April 1957) is an English actress, known for portraying the role of Rona in all eight series of the BBC sitcom 2point4 Children . She also portrayed various roles in Channel 4's first late night satirical sketch show Who Dares Wins , Beryl in two series of the sitcom Dad and Caroline Joyner in Casualty . [1]
Hills was born in Nottingham and is a former member of the Royal Shakespeare Company where she played many leading roles including Sally Forth in the premiere of Peter Nichols' musical Poppy . Perdita in The Winter's Tale and Diana in All's Well That Ends Well directed by Trevor Nunn. She also played Edwin Drood in the New York Shakespeare Theatre production of The Mystery of Edwin Drood at the Savoy Theatre in 1987 working with Lulu and Ernie Wise. She went to Walton high school, Stafford, Staffordshire.[ citation needed ]
Hills was nominated for an Olivier Award (Actress of the Year in a Musical) in 1984 for her performance as Emily Tallentire in Howard Goodall and Melvyn Bragg's musical The Hired Man .[ citation needed ]
Other theatre credits include Eve in Flying Under Bridges by Sandi Toksvig adapted by Sarah Daniels (Watford Palace Theatre), Betty in Larkin with Women (Coventry Belgrade), Vera in Stepping Out (New Vic Theatre Stoke), The Hired Man (Leicester Haymarket and West End), A Midsummer Night's Dream (RSC Stratford and Barbican) Rusty in Our Friends in the North by Peter Flannery (RSC Newcastle and Barbican), The Witch of Edmonton (RSC Stratford), Beside Herself by Sarah Daniels (Royal Court), We The Undersigned, Dealing With Clair by Martin Crimp (Orange Tree Richmond), Toine in Piaf, Beauty and the Beast, Guys and Dolls, The Tempest , Sylvia Raven in Shaw's The Philanderer , Beside The Sea, Susannah in Alan Ayckbourn's Bedroom Farce , A Mad World my Masters, Dorcas Frey in David Hare's Plenty (Bristol Old Vic), A Midsummer Night's Dream (Bristol Old Vic and London Old Vic), Brecht's Mr Puntila and his Man Matti , Does This Train Stop at Southend? (Stratford East), Bunty Mainwaring in Coward's The Vortex , Shore Saints and Sea Devils (Library Theatre Manchester), Fertility Dance (Nuffield Southampton), Jack and the Beanstalk (York Theatre Royal) and two national tours of Who Dares Wins – Sex and Drugs and Sausage Roll. From February 2009 she took part in a nationwide tour of Calendar Girls [ citation needed ] before it moved to the Noël Coward Theatre from 3 April 2009.[ citation needed ]
In recent years, she has appeared as Mrs Eynsford-Hill in Pygmalion at Manchester's Royal Exchange theatre and rejoined the tour of Calendar Girls to play the role of Annie. She played Amy Ruskin in Special Occasions at The Mill Theatre Sonning playing opposite her husband Paul Clarkson and then played Homily Clock in The Borrowers at The Nuffield Theatre Southampton. She completed sell out seasons at Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory in Bristol garnering five star reviews for her performances as Goneril in King Lear and Madame Ranevskaya in The Cherry Orchard both directed by Andrew Hilton and then moved to the Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham where she performed in Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie playing Amanda Wingfield. She has played the part of Kath in Entertaining Mr Sloane by Joe Orton at Curve Leicester and Toine in Piaf directed by Paul Kerryson. She has played Margaret in Springs Eternal by Susan Glaspell at The Orange Tree Theatre Richmond directed by Sam Walters and Worst Wedding Ever by Chris Chibnall at the Salisbury Playhouse. In 2019, she created the role of Dolly Bantry for the first-ever English stage adaptation of Agatha Christie's The Mirror Crack'd for Wales Millennium Centre directed by Melly Still which toured in the UK and Ireland.[ citation needed ]
Hills has appeared in many TV shows, such as in 2point4 Children in which she played Rona for the show's 8 series run on BBC1 (1991–1999). She also starred as all of the women and even some of the male characters in the Channel 4 comedy series Who Dares Wins (1984–88). She has appeared as Caroline Joyner in hospital drama Casualty (2004–2005), and previously in the series as Carol Simpson for one 1993 episode.[ citation needed ]
She also starred in Ladies in Charge for 6 episodes in 1986 and shared a leading role with Kevin McNally in BBC sitcom Dad as Beryl Hook for 13 episodes (1997–1999) over 2 series. Dad was written by Andrew Marshall who also created 2point4 Children . She has also appeared as herself on The Good Sex Guide in 1993 and The Alan Titchmarsh Show in 2009.[ citation needed ]
Hills is also known for playing Annabelle Shrivener in The Archers as well as appearing in numerous other radio series and plays. Her films include Homeground (1982). [2] In 2014, she appeared in the BBC soap opera Doctors in the recurring role of Hazel Conroy. [3] She returned to the soap in February 2022, where she portrayed the role of Susan Rutherford for one episode. [4]
Hills is married to actor and director Paul Clarkson, who played John Tallentire in The Hired Man. The couple have three children; including actor Stewart Clarke and comedian Abi Clarke.[ citation needed ]
Timothy Lancaster West, CBE is an English retired actor and presenter. He has appeared frequently on stage and television, including stints in both Coronation Street and EastEnders, and Not Going Out, as the original Geoffrey Adams. He is married to the actress Prunella Scales; from 2014 to 2019, they travelled together on UK and overseas canals in the Channel 4 series Great Canal Journeys.
Louise Marion Jameson is an English actress with a variety of television and theatre credits. Her roles on television have included playing Leela in Doctor Who (1977–1978), Anne Reynolds in The Omega Factor (1979), Blanche Simmons in Tenko (1981–1982), Susan Young in Bergerac (1985–1990), Rosa di Marco in EastEnders (1998–2000) and Mary Goskirk in Emmerdale (2022–present).
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Sir Antony Sher was a British actor, writer and theatre director of South African origin. A two-time Laurence Olivier Award winner and a four-time nominee, he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1982 and toured in many roles, as well as appearing on film and television. In 2001, he starred in his cousin Ronald Harwood's play Mahler's Conversion, and said that the story of a composer sacrificing his faith for his career echoed his own identity struggles.
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Michael Vivian Fyfe Pennington is an English actor, director and writer. Together with director Michael Bogdanov, he founded the English Shakespeare Company in 1986 and was its Joint Artistic Director until 1992. He has written ten books, directed in the UK, US, Romania and Japan, and is an Honorary Associate Artist of the Royal Shakespeare Company. He is best known for his role as Moff Jerjerrod in the original Star Wars trilogy film Return of the Jedi.
Dilys Laye was an English actress and singer, best known for her comedy roles, in which she was seen in the West End and on Broadway for more than fifty years, beginning in 1951. Although primarily a stage performer, she broadcast frequently on radio and television, and appeared in films.
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John Paton Laurie was a Scottish stage, film, and television actor. He appeared in scores of feature films with directors including Alfred Hitchcock, David Lean, Michael Powell and Laurence Olivier, generally playing memorable small or supporting roles. As a stage actor, he was cast in Shakespearean roles and was a speaker of verse, especially of Robert Burns. He is perhaps best remembered for his role in the sitcom Dad's Army (1968–1977) as Private Frazer, a member of the Home Guard.
Belinda Lucy Lange, known professionally as Belinda Lang, is an English actress. She is known for playing Liza in the ITV sitcom Second Thoughts (1991–94), and Bill Porter in the BBC sitcom 2point4 Children (1991–99). Her theatre credits include London productions of the Noël Coward plays, Present Laughter (1981), Blithe Spirit (1997), and Hay Fever (2006). Her radio/audio credits include voicing narrator Madeleine in the podcast Wooden Overcoats.
John Woodvine is an English actor who has appeared in more than 70 theatre productions, as well as a similar number of television and film roles.
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Aikaterini Hadjipateras, known professionally as Kathryn Hunter, is a British–American actress and theatre director, known for her appearances as Arabella Figg in the Harry Potter film series, Eedy Karn in the Disney+ Star Wars spinoff series Andor, as the Three Witches in Joel Coen's The Tragedy of Macbeth, and most recently as Swiney in Yorgos Lanthimos's Poor Things. Hunter was born in New York to Greek parents, and was raised in England. She trained at RADA, where she is now an associate and regularly directs student productions, and studied clowning with Philippe Gaulier.
Jeffery Kissoon is an actor with credits in British theatre, television, film and radio. He has performed with the Royal Shakespeare Company at venues such as the Royal National Theatre, under directors including Peter Brook, Peter Hall, Robert Lepage, Janet Suzman, Calixto Bieito and Nicholas Hytner. He has acted in genres from Shakespeare and modern theatre to television drama and science fiction, playing a range of both leading and supporting roles, from Mark Antony in Antony and Cleopatra and Prospero and Caliban in The Tempest, to Malcolm X in The Meeting and Mr Kennedy in the children's TV series Grange Hill.
Patrick Wymark was an English stage, film and television actor.
Alan MacKenzie Howard, CBE was an English actor. He was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company from 1966 to 1983 and played leading roles at the Royal National Theatre between 1992 and 2000.
John Pickard is an English actor, best known for playing David Porter in the BBC sitcom 2point4 Children, and Dominic Reilly in Channel 4's Hollyoaks.
Richard Dillane is an English actor. He appears in Soldier Soldier (1995), Cold Feet (2000), Space Race (2005), Tristan & Isolde (2006), Spooks (2007), Casualty (2008-2009), Oranges and Sunshine (2010), Doctor Who (2011), Argo (2012), Dead in Tombstone (2013), Wolf Hall (2015), Peaky Blinders and Poldark (2016), Giri/Haji (2019), Young Wallander (2020),The Crown and Andor (2022).
Jasper Britton is an English actor.
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