Josette Patricia Simon OBE is a British actress. She played the part of Dayna Mellanby in the third and fourth series of the television sci-fi series Blake's 7 from 1980 to 1981. [1] [2] On stage, she has appeared in Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) productions from 1982, playing Ariel in The Tempest , to 2018 when she was Cleopatra in Antony and Cleopatra.
Her first leading role at the RSC, the first for a black actress, was as Rosaline, in Love's Labour's Lost , directed by Barry Kyle, in 1984. [3] In 1987, Simon appeared for the RSC again, in the lead role of Isabelle in Measure for Measure . [4] [5] Later leading roles for the RSC saw her as Titania/Hippolyta in A Midsummer Night's Dream (1999–2000) and Cleopatra in Antony and Cleopatra (2017–18). [6] [7]
Simon won the Evening Standard's Best Actress award, [8] a Critics' Circle Theatre Award, and Plays and Players Critic Awards for After the Fall, [9] [10] and two film festival awards for her part in Milk and Honey (1988). [11] [12] She was awarded the Order of the British Empire in 2000, for services to drama. [13]
Channels and dates are for the United Kingdom unless otherwise indicated.
Year | Title` | Role | Notes | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
1980–1981 | Blake's 7 | Dayna Mellanby | BBC1. 26 episodes. | [1] [2] |
1980 | The Cuckoo Waltz | [14] | ||
1980 | The Squad | Noble Bartlett | [15] [16] | |
1984 | Play for Today | Linda King | BBC1. Episode: "King". | [17] [18] |
1986 | Pob's Programme | guest | Channel 4 | [19] |
1986 | Harem | Geisla | TV movie | [20] |
1986 | Save a Life | BBC1 | [21] | |
1986 | Umbrella | BBC1 | [22] | |
1986 | The Pyrates | Sheba | BBC2 | [23] [24] |
1988 | Thompson | various roles | BBC1. 2 episodes. | [25] [26] |
1989 | Screen Two: Here is the News | BBC2 | [27] | |
1989 | Child Slaves | narrator | BBC2 | [28] |
1989 | Capital City | Beatrice | Episode: "Take Over" | [29] |
1990 | When Love Dies | Annabel | Channel 4 | [30] |
1992 | A Child from the South | Nadia | TV movie | [20] [31] |
1992 | Bitter Harvest | Vivienne Johnson | BBC2 | [29] [32] |
1992 | Nice Town | Frankie | 3 episodes | [33] |
1993 | Seekers | Susie | Both episodes | [34] |
1994 | The Natural World | narrator | BBC Radio 4 | [35] |
1994 | Black Christmas: Shooting Stars | narrator | [36] | |
1995 | Henry IV | Kate | BBC | [37] [38] |
1997 | Bridge of Time | Fatima | ABC. TV movie. | [39] [40] |
1997 | Kavanagh QC | Dr. Hilary Jameson | ITV. Episode: "Blood Money". | [29] |
1998 | Dalziel and Pascoe | Eileen Anstiss | BBC One. Episode: "Bones and Silence". | [29] |
1998 | Silent Witness | DCI Jo Hoskins | BBC One. Episodes: "Divided Loyalties: Part 1 & 2". | [29] |
1999 | Polterguests | Dilys Tring | ITV | [31] [41] |
2000 | Reputations: Joe Louis: the Boxer Who Beat Hitler | narrator | BBC Two | [42] |
2002 | Celeb | Dawn | BBC One | [43] |
2003 | The Last Detective | Jemma Duvall | ITV. Episode: "Lofty". | [29] |
2006 | Poirot | Mirelle Milesi | Episode: "The Mystery of the Blue Train" | [29] |
2006 | Casualty | Sarah Keith | BBC One. Episodes: "The Sunny Side of the Street, Part 1 & 2". | [44] |
2007 | Lewis | Stephanie Fielding | ITV. Episode: "Expiation". | [29] |
2008 | Skins | Elaine | E4. Episode "Jal". | [29] [45] |
2009 | Minder | DI Murray | Channel 5 | [46] |
2009–10 | Casualty | Frances Liveley | BBC One. 7 episodes. | [47] |
2000 | The Silence | Therapist | BBC One, two episodes | [48] [49] |
2011 | Silent Witness | Mrs Ferris | BBC One. Episode: "First Casualty: Part 2". | [50] |
2012 | New Tricks | Vera | BBC One. Episode: "Queen and Country". | [51] |
2012 | Merlin | Euchdag / The Diamair | BBC One Episode: "Arthur's Bane: Part One & Two" | [52] |
2014 | Death in Paradise | Judge Anne Stone | BBC One. Episode: "An Artistic Murder". | [53] |
2014 | Suspects | Dr. Melanie Standish | Channel 5 | [29] |
2016 | NW | Theodora Lewis Lane | BBC Two | [29] |
2017 | Broadchurch | Chief Superintendent Clark | ITV. 3 episodes. | [29] |
2018 | The Split | Maya | BBC One. | [54] |
2018 | Jägarna | Ayanda Moganedi | [55] | |
2019 | Nightflyers | Cynthia | Syfy | [56] |
2019 | Queens of Mystery | Tallulah Savage-Hughes | Acorn TV. 2 episodes, "Death by Vinyl" | [57] [58] |
2020 | Riviera | Cynthia Akuffo | Sky Atlantic. Series 3, episodes 7 and 8. | [59] [60] |
2020 | The Witcher | Eithne | Netflix | [61] |
2020 | Absentia | Rowena Kincade | Amazon Prime Video | [62] |
2020 | Shakespeare and Hathaway | Henrietta Bolingbroke | BBC One. Episode "How The Rogue Roar'd" | [63] |
2020 | Small Axe | Lydia Thomas | BBC One. Episode "Education". | [64] |
2021 | The Mallorca Files | Anna Hammond | BBC One. Episode: "The Maestro". | [65] |
2022 | Anatomy of a Scandal | Angela Regan | Netflix. 6 episodes. | [66] [67] |
2022 | The Girlfriend Experience | Lindsey | Starz | [68] |
2022 | Halo | Desiderata | Paramount+. Episode "Inheritance". | [69] |
2022 | Crossfire | Miriam | BBC One | [70] |
TBA | Anansi Boys | Chief Commissioner Camberwell | Amazon Prime Video | [71] |
Year | Title | Role | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|
1987 | Cry Freedom | Dr. Ramphele | [72] |
1988 | Milk and Honey | Joanna Bell | [72] |
2012 | Red Lights | Corinne | [73] |
2017 | Wonder Woman | Mnemosyne | [29] |
2019 | Detective Pikachu | Grams | [29] |
2020 | The Witches | Zelda | [74] |
2024 | The Crow | Sophia | [75] |
2025 | Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy | Talitha |
Year | Title | Role | Notes | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
1984 | Meridian | guest | BBC World Service | [81] |
1985 | Woman's Hour | guest | BBC Radio 4 | [82] |
1985 | Mirandolina | Mirandolina | BBC Radio 3 | [83] |
1992 | Dictator Gal | the Gal | BBC Radio 3 | [84] |
1992 | Woman's Hour | guest | BBC Radio 4 | [85] |
1992 | Work Talk | guest | BBC Radio 4 | [86] |
1994 | Towards the Millennium: Listen to Me | Gertrude Stein play. BBC Radio 3. | [87] | |
1994 | Woman's Hour | guest | BBC Radio 4 | [88] |
1995 | Sealed with a Kiss | Ellen | BBC Radio 4 | [89] |
1996 | The Roads to Freedom | Ivich | BBC Radio 4 | [90] |
1996 | Picasso's Women | Marie-Thérèse | BBC Radio 3 | [91] |
1996 | Poetry Please! | reader | BBC Radio 4 | [92] |
1997 | The Sunday Play: Agonies Awakening | Athena | BBC Radio 3 | [93] |
1998 | Sunday Play: Twelfth Night | Olivia | BBC Radio 3 | [94] |
2001 | Book of the Week: The Josephine Baker Story | reader | BBC Radio 4, five episodes. | [95] |
2002 | Afternoon Play: Voices in the Room | Misha | Bonnie Greer play. BBC Radio 4. | [96] |
2002 | Afternoon Play: Letters to an icon | DarkLady/lnvisiblewoman | BBC Radio 4 | [97] |
2006 | Book of the Week: And Still I Rise | reader | Book by Doreen Lawrence. BBC Radio 4, five episodes. | [98] |
2006 | The Verb | actor | In Nick Silver Can't Sleep by Janice Kerbel. BBC Radio 3 | [99] |
2006 | Poetry Please | reader | BBC Radio 4, two episodes. | [100] [101] |
2007 | Words and Music | reader | BBC Radio 3. Episode "Slavery and Freedom". | [102] |
2008 | Words and Music | reader | BBC Radio 3. Episode "Birth and Rebirth". | [103] |
2011 | Words and Music | reader | BBC Radio 3. Episode "Law and Order". | [104] |
2018 | Choir and Organ | guest | BBC Radio 3 | [105] |
2018 | Inheritance Tracks | guest | BBC Radio 4 | [106] |
2019 | Words and Music | presenter | BBC Radio 3. Episode "Windrush: Some Kind of Homecoming". | [107] |
2020 | Whatever Happened to Baby Jane Austen? | Mrs Ragnarrok | BBC Radio 4 | [108] |
2022 | Gossip and Goddesses with Granny Kumar | guest | BBC Radio 4 | [109] |
2022 | Steve Wright in the Afternoon | guest | BBC Radio 2 | [110] |