Susie Blake | |
---|---|
Born | |
Education | Arts Educational Schools, London London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art |
Occupation | Actress |
Years active | 1973–present |
Notable work | Coronation Street Mrs. Brown's Boys |
Mother | Molly Blake |
Relatives | Annette Mills (grandmother) Sir John Mills (great uncle) Juliet Mills (cousin) Hayley Mills (cousin) |
Susie Blake (born 19 April 1950) [1] is an English television, radio and stage actress.
She is best known for her portrayal of the snobbish TV announcer in Victoria Wood: As Seen on TV and of Bev Unwin in Coronation Street , a role she played between 2003 and 2006, before a brief return in 2015. She has also played Hillary Nicholson in Mrs. Brown's Boys since 2011.
Blake was born in Highgate, London to David and Molly Blake. Her mother was an illustrator and children's television presenter. [2] Susie's maternal grandmother was the children's entertainer Annette Mills, her cousins are the actresses Juliet and Hayley Mills, whilst her great-uncle was the actor John Mills. [1]
Blake regularly appeared in Victoria Wood's television programmes and has extensive radio credits. She appeared in the first episode of the sitcom One Foot in the Grave in which her character was responsible for firing Victor Meldrew, thus setting the events of the show in motion. She appeared as Bev Unwin in the ITV soap opera Coronation Street until her departure in December 2006.
Blake played the character of Madame Morrible in the West End production of Wicked , replacing Miriam Margolyes on 2 April 2007. [3] Her final performance was on 12 April 2008, before she was succeeded by Harriet Thorpe. [4] Blake appeared as a witch in the pantomime Wizard of Oz at The Lowry Theatre and Gallery, Salford, in 2004/2005.
In late 2008 to early 2009, she starred in the national UK tour of Boeing Boeing , and appeared as Judith in an episode of the third series of Wild at Heart . She was also in a national tour of Grumpy Old Women 2 in 2009 with Jenny Eclair and Wendi Peters.
Blake appeared as Hillary Nicholson in the RTÉ and BBC comedy Mrs. Brown's Boys , replacing Sorcha Cusack, who played Hillary in the first series. In 2015, she played The Queen in a theatre tour of the West End hit Handbagged .
Blake briefly reprised her Coronation Street role of Bev Unwin in July 2015 to help the long-running character Deirdre Barlow (played by Anne Kirkbride, who had recently died) bow out of the soap in January 2015.
In March 2019, Blake portrayed Agatha Christie's Miss Marple in a theatre production of The Mirror Crack'd at the Salisbury Playhouse. [5] Then from 2023 to 2024, she will appear in a touring production of Murder in the Dark . [6]
Miss Jane Marple is a fictional character in Agatha Christie's crime novels and short stories. Miss Marple lives in the village of St. Mary Mead and acts as an amateur consulting detective. Often characterized as an elderly spinster, she is one of Christie's best-known characters and has been portrayed numerous times on screen. Her first appearance was in a short story published in The Royal Magazine in December 1927, "The Tuesday Night Club", which later became the first chapter of The Thirteen Problems (1932). Her first appearance in a full-length novel was in The Murder at the Vicarage in 1930, and her last appearance was in Sleeping Murder in 1976.
Dame Margaret Taylor Rutherford, was an English actress of stage, film and television.
The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side, a novel by Agatha Christie, was published in the UK in 1962 and a year later in the US under the title The Mirror Crack'd. The story features amateur detective Miss Marple solving a mystery in St. Mary Mead.
Joan Bogle Hickson OBE was an English actress of theatre, film and television. She was known for her role as Agatha Christie's Miss Marple in the television series Miss Marple. She also narrated a number of Miss Marple stories on audiobooks.
Miriam Margolyes is a British and Australian actress. Known for her work as a character actor across film, television, and stage, she received the BAFTA for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Mrs. Mingott in Martin Scorsese's The Age of Innocence (1993), and achieved international prominence with her portrayal of Professor Sprout in the Harry Potter film series (2001–2011). Margolyes was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2002 New Year Honours for Services to Drama.
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).
Jo Anne Worley is an American actress, comedian, and singer. Her work covers television, films, theater, game shows, talk shows, commercials, and cartoons. Worley is widely known for her work on the comedy-variety show Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In.
Wendi Louise Peters is an English actress. She is a Leapling. Peters began her acting career in theatre, with appearances in various productions including The Scarlet Pimpernel (1991), Guys and Dolls (1991), Into the Woods (1992), Bedroom Farce (1996) and Noises Off (1997). Then from 2003 to 2007 and again in 2014, she portrayed Cilla Battersby-Brown in the ITV soap opera Coronation Street.
Wicked is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and a book by Winnie Holzman. It is a loose adaptation of the 1995 Gregory Maguire novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, which in turn is based on L. Frank Baum's 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and its 1939 film adaptation. The musical is told from the perspective of two witches, Elphaba and Galinda, before and after Dorothy's arrival in Oz. The story explores the complex friendship between Elphaba and Galinda. Their relationship is tested by their contrasting personalities, conflicting viewpoints, shared love interest, reactions to the corrupt rule of the Wonderful Wizard, and ultimately, Elphaba's tragic fall.
Rose Keegan is a British actress of stage, film and television. She trained at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. Her mother is the writer Susanne Keegan. Her father was the writer and military historian Sir John Keegan.
The Mirror Crack'd is a 1980 British mystery film directed by Guy Hamilton from a screenplay by Jonathan Hales and Barry Sandler, based on Agatha Christie's Miss Marple novel The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side (1962). It stars Angela Lansbury, Geraldine Chaplin, Tony Curtis, Edward Fox, Rock Hudson, Kim Novak, and Elizabeth Taylor. Scenes were filmed at Twickenham Film Studios in Twickenham, London, and on location in Kent.
Sophie Thompson is a British actress. She has worked in film, television and theatre and she won the 1999 Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical for the London revival of Into the Woods. She has been nominated for the Olivier Award five other times for Wildest Dreams (1994), Company (1996), Clybourne Park (2011) Guys and Dolls (2016) and Present Laughter (2019).
Sorcha Cusack is an Irish television and stage actress. Her numerous television credits include playing the title role in Jane Eyre (1973), Casualty (1994–1997), Coronation Street (2008) and Father Brown (2013–2022).
Dorothy Renée Ascherson, known professionally as Renée Asherson, was an English actress. Much of her theatrical career was spent in Shakespearean plays, appearing at such venues as the Old Vic, the Liverpool Playhouse, and the Westminster Theatre. Her first stage appearance was on 17 October 1935, aged 20, and her first major film appearance was in The Way Ahead (1944). Her last film appearance was in The Others (2001).
Julia Kathleen Nancy McKenzie is an English actress, singer, presenter, and theatre director. She has premièred leading roles written by both Alan Ayckbourn and Stephen Sondheim. On television, she is known for her BAFTA Award nominated role as Hester Fields in the sitcom Fresh Fields (1984–1986) and its sequel French Fields (1989–1991), and as Miss Marple in Agatha Christie's Marple (2009–2013).
Harriet Amelia Thorpe is an English actress. Thorpe trained at London's Central School of Speech and Drama. She is known for her roles in the British sitcoms, The Brittas Empire (1991–1997) and Absolutely Fabulous (1992–2012) and has also starred in the West End musicals, Cabaret (2006), Wicked (2008) and Mamma Mia! (2010). In 2023, she took over the role of Elaine Peacock in the BBC soap opera, EastEnders.
Agatha Christie's Marple is a British ITV television programme loosely based on the books and short stories by British crime novelist Agatha Christie. The title character was played by Geraldine McEwan from the first to the third series, until her retirement from the role, and by Julia McKenzie from the fourth series onwards. Unlike the counterpart TV series Agatha Christie's Poirot, the show took many liberties with Christie’s works, most notably adding Miss Marple’s character to the adaptations of novels in which she never appeared. Following the conclusion of the sixth series, the BBC acquired the rights for the production of Agatha Christie adaptations, suggesting that ITV would be unable to make a seventh series of Marple.
Miss Marple, titled Agatha Christie's Miss Marple in the series, is a British television series based on the Miss Marple murder mystery novels by Agatha Christie, starring Joan Hickson in the title role. It aired from 26 December 1984 to 27 December 1992 on BBC One. All twelve original Miss Marple novels by Christie were dramatised.
Simon Stephen Shepherd is an English actor best known to TV audiences from many appearances, including as Dr Will Preston in eight series of ITV's Peak Practice and Doctor Jonathan Barling in Casualty.
Marlene Sidaway is a British television, film and theatre actress best known for playing Brenda Taylor in the long-running soap opera Coronation Street.