Linda Bassett | |
---|---|
Born | Pluckley, Kent, England | 4 February 1950
Occupation | Actress |
Years active | 1979–present |
Linda Bassett (born 4 February 1950) is an English actress. Her television credits include Victoria Wood's dinnerladies (1999), Lark Rise to Candleford (2008–11), Grandma's House (2010–12) and Call the Midwife (2015–present).
She was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for the 1999 film East Is East and for the Evening Standard Award for Best Actress for the 2013 revival of the play Roots at the Donmar Warehouse.
Bassett was born in Pluckley, Kent, England, to a typist mother and a police officer father. [1] She moved to Pimlico, London, at a young age, where her passion for drama blossomed, as her family often watched classic plays at the Old Vic Theatre. [2]
Bassett worked as an usher at the Old Vic whilst a schoolgirl, before enrolling at The University of Leeds. She dropped out of university after one year to work in a community drama group. [2]
Bassett's career began in the theatre. Her first professional work was in community and educational theatre in the 1970s. [3]
In film, she first gained notice when she was cast as Gertrude Stein opposite Linda Hunt as Alice B. Toklas in Waiting for the Moon in 1987. She also appeared as Julia Roberts' mother in Mary Reilly in 1996 and had the award-winning role of Ella Khan in the 1999 British comedy film East is East .
Other roles include Mrs. Brenner, the prison official in the 2008 film The Reader, Cora in Calendar Girls (March), Mrs. Jennings in the three-part BBC adaptation Sense and Sensibility , Queenie Turrill in Lark Rise to Candleford , Doll in the film Cass .
More recently she played Grandma in the BBC Two comedy Grandma's House . Since 2015, she has portrayed Nurse Phyllis Crane on the BBC One drama series Call the Midwife .
Bassett lives in Kent, in a village close to her birthplace. [4]
Year | Film / TV | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1987 | Waiting for the Moon | Gertrude Stein | |
1988 | Dramarama | Meg Crawford | TV series (1 episode: "Making Waves") |
Paris by Night | Janet Swanton | ||
1989 | Traffik | Rachel Lithgow | TV series (4 episodes) |
Boon | Mrs. Sheridan | TV series (1 episode: "In It for the Monet") | |
1990 | Screen One | Virginia Lyddon | TV series (1 episode: "News Hound") |
The Bill | Shena Jackson | TV series (2 episodes) | |
1991 | A Small Dance | Sandra Matkin | |
4 Play | Phyllis Twigg | TV series (1 episode: "Say Hello to the Real Dr. Snide") | |
Let Him Have It | Mrs. Miles | ||
1994 | Love Hurts | Janice | TV series (1 episode: "Blue Heaven") |
A Touch of Frost | Mrs. Cornish | TV series (1 episode: "Nothing to Hide") | |
Screen Two | Mrs. Loveless/Susan | TV series (2 episodes) | |
Frank Stubbs | Eileen | TV series (1 episode: "Babies") | |
1995 | A Village Affair | Gwen | TV film |
The Bill | Chrissie Bates | TV series (1 episode: "Old Habitats") | |
Bramwell | Maud | TV mini-series (1 episode: "Episode #1.7") | |
Loved Up | Mother | TV film | |
The Peter Principle | Iris Jennings | TV series (1 episode: "Pilot") | |
Haunted | Madam Brontski | ||
EastEnders | Bridget Gilsenan | TV series (1 episode) | |
1996 | Mary Reilly | Mary's Mother | Film |
Casualty | Olwyn Humphries | TV series (1 episode: "Asking for Miracles") | |
No Bananas | Ellen Slater | TV mini-series (10 episodes) | |
Indian Summer | Doctor | Film | |
1997 | Kavanagh QC | Miss Haddon QC | TV series (1 episode: "Mute of Malice") |
Oscar and Lucinda | Betty Stratton | ||
1998 | Spoonface Steinberg | Mrs. Spud | TV film |
The Life and Crimes of William Palmer | Mary Thornton | TV film | |
Our Mutual Friend | Abby Potterson | TV mini-series (2 episodes) | |
Far from the Madding Crowd | Maryann Money | TV film | |
Out of Hours | Carol-Ann Kumar | TV mini-series | |
1999 | East is East | Ella Khan | Nominated – BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role |
Beautiful People | Sister | Film | |
dinnerladies | Peggy | TV series (1 episode: "Trouble") | |
2000 | Lounge Act | Voice | Short |
Don Quixote | Housekeeper | TV film | |
Losing It | Tom's Mother | TV film | |
2001 | The Martins | Anthea | |
2002 | The Last Time | Evelyn | Short |
The Hours | Nelly Boxall | ||
2003 | This Little Life | Nurse Nina | TV film |
Calendar Girls | Cora | Film | |
2004 | Spivs | Auntie Vee | |
The Brief | Maureen Tyler | TV series (8 episodes: 2004–2005) | |
2005 | Separate Lies | Maggie | |
Colour Me Kubrick: A True...ish Story | Trolley Lady | ||
Kinky Boots | Melanie | Film | |
Heartbeat | Beryl Palmer | TV series (1 episode: "Burden of Proof") | |
The English Harem | Monica Pringle | TV film | |
2007 | Midsomer Murders | Eileen Carnack | TV series (1 episode: "The Animal Within") |
2008 | Sense and Sensibility | Mrs. Jennings | TV mini-series (3 episodes) |
Cass | Doll | Film | |
The Reader | Ms. Brenner | ||
Lark Rise to Candleford | Queenie Turrill | TV series (40 episodes: 2008–2011) | |
2010 | West Is West | Ella Khan | |
Grandma's House | Grandma | TV series (12 episodes: 2010–2012) | |
2012 | Nick Nickleby | Mrs. Smike | TV series (4 episodes: 2012–present) |
2013 | Spies of Warsaw | Malka Rosen | BBC miniseries |
2015–2017 | Twirlywoos | Narrator | children's TV show |
2015– | Call the Midwife | Nurse Phyllis Crane | TV series |
2017 | Carnage | Dr Yasmine Vondenburg | Mockumentary |
2022 | Strike | Joan Nancarrow | TV series (Troubled Blood) |
Among her most notable stage roles were those in:
Georgina McKee is an English actress. She won the 1997 BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress for Our Friends in the North (1996), and earned subsequent nominations for The Lost Prince (2003) and The Street (2007). She also starred on television in The Forsyte Saga (2002) and as Caterina Sforza in The Borgias (2011). Her film appearances include Notting Hill (1999), Phantom Thread (2017), and My Policeman (2022).
Tara Anne Cassandra Fitzgerald is an English actress who has appeared in feature films, television, radio and the stage. She won the New York Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play in 1995 as Ophelia in Hamlet. She won the Best Actress Award at The Reims International Television Festival in 1999 for her role of Lady Dona St Columb in Frenchman's Creek. Fitzgerald has appeared in the West End production of The Misanthrope at the Comedy Theatre, and in Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House at the Donmar Warehouse. Since 2007, Fitzgerald has appeared in more than 30 episodes of the BBC television series Waking the Dead and played the role of Selyse Baratheon in the HBO series Game of Thrones.
Claire Skinner is an English actress, known in the United Kingdom for her television career, particularly playing Sue Brockman from the BBC television series Outnumbered. She is also known for her collaboration with director Mike Leigh on two of his films, Life is Sweet (1990) and Naked (1993).
Matilda Ziegler is an English actress, best known for her roles as Donna Ludlow in EastEnders, Irma Gobb in Mr. Bean, and Pearl Pratt in Lark Rise to Candleford.
Olivia Haigh Williams is a British actress who appears in British and American films and television. Williams studied drama at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School for two years followed by three years at the Royal Shakespeare Company. Her first significant screen role was as Jane Fairfax in the British television film Emma (1996), based on Jane Austen's novel.
Dame Harriet Mary Walter is a British actress. She has performed on stage with the Royal Shakespeare Company, and received an Olivier Award, and nominations for a Tony Award, five Emmy Awards, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. In 2011, Walter was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) for services to drama.
Claudie Blakley is an English actress. She trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama. In 1998, she won the Ian Charleson Award for her performance in The Seagull at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds. She is best known for her role as Emma Timmins in the BBC drama series Lark Rise to Candleford.
Allan Corduner is a British actor. Born in Stockholm to a German mother and a Russo-Finnish father, Corduner grew up in a secular Jewish home in London. After earning a BA (Hons) in English and Drama at Bristol University he trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. He has worked extensively on stage, TV, and film, both in the UK and in the United States. His voice is familiar from many BBC radio plays, audio books and TV documentaries.
Far Away is a 2000 play by British playwright Caryl Churchill. It has four characters, Harper, Young Joan, Joan, and Todd, and is based on the premise of a world in which everything in nature is at war. It is published by Nick Hern Books. While some critics have expressed reservations about the play's ending, many regard Far Away as one of Churchill's finest plays.
Anna Madeley is an English actress. She performed for three seasons with the Royal Shakespeare Company and has appeared in three off-West End productions. She has starred in productions on each of the main British television channels and has also worked in radio and film. Madeley has appeared as Kate Kendrick in Deadwater Fell and as Audrey Hall in the remake of All Creatures Great and Small.
Harriet Jane Morahan is an English actress. Her roles include Sister Clara in The Golden Compass (2007), Gale Benson in The Bank Job (2008), Alice in The Bletchley Circle (2012–2014), Ann in Mr. Holmes (2015), Rose Coyne in My Mother and Other Strangers (2016), Agathe/The Enchantress in Beauty and the Beast (2017), Corinne Aldrich in Luther: The Fallen Sun, Louise in Hijack, and Caroline Burkett in Fool Me Once. As a voice actress, Doctor Who companion Helen Sinclair for Big Finish Productions.
Karl Johnson is a Welsh actor, who has worked on stage, film and television. His notable roles to date include the title role in Derek Jarman's 1993 film Wittgenstein, and those of Cato the Younger in the television drama series Rome and of Twister Turrill in the BBC costume drama Lark Rise to Candleford.
Fenella Woolgar is an English film, theatre, television and radio actress. She is known for her roles in films including Bright Young Things, Swallows and Amazons and Victoria and Abdul and for TV shows including Doctor Who, as crime novelist Agatha Christie, Inside Number 9, Call the Midwife and The Buccaneers.
Deborah Findlay is an English actress. She has worked primarily on stage and is an Olivier Award Winner, but has also appeared in several TV series. She is known for playing the Defoe family matriarch Ruth in three series of the BBC TV legal drama The Split (2018–2022).
Aisling Sinead Katie Loftus is a British actress. She began her career as a child actress and first gained prominence through her roles in the BBC dramas Five Daughters (2010) and Dive (2010), the play Spur of the Moment, and the film Death of a Superhero (2011).
Lisa Ann Diveney is a British actress, best known for playing Beth in the Only Fools and Horses spin-off The Green Green Grass. She has also appeared in an episode of BBC drama Call the Midwife.
Philippa Elaine Fanti Bennett-Warner is a British actress. She began her career as a child actress, playing young Nala in the original West End production of The Lion King (1999). She went on to earn WhatsOnStage and Ian Charleson Award nominations for her roles in the musical Caroline, or Change (2006) and Michael Grandage's King Lear (2010) respectively.
Clare Perkins is an English actress who is known for her roles as Denise Boulter in Family Affairs and Ava Hartman in EastEnders.
James Macdonald is a British theatre and film director who is best known for his work with contemporary writers such as Caryl Churchill. He was associate and deputy director of the Royal Court Theatre from 1992 to 2006. There he staged the premiere of Sarah Kane's Blasted (1995), her highly controversial debut which sparked a Newsnight debate on BBC Television. He also directed the premiere of Kane's Cleansed (1998) and 4.48 Psychosis which opened after her suicide.
Ashley McGuire is a British actress, known for her roles as Big Mandy in the BBC comedy series This Country, Vicky Houghton in the BBC One series This Is Going to Hurt, Shakira in the Channel 4 comedy series Man Down and Bev Slater on the BBC soap opera EastEnders.