Julia Sawalha

Julia Sawalha
Born	(1968-09-09) 9 September 1968 (age 50) Lambeth, London, England
Residence	Wandsworth, London, England
Education	Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts, London
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1981–present
Television	Press Gang Second Thoughts Jonathan Creek Martin Chuzzlewit Pride and Prejudice Ain't Misbehavin' Faith in the Future Absolutely Fabulous Cranford Lark Rise to Candleford Remember Me
Parent(s)	Nadim Sawalha Roberta Lane
Relatives	Nadia Sawalha (sister) Nabil Sawalha (paternal uncle)

Julia Sawalha (born 9 September 1968) is an English actress known mainly for her role as Saffron Monsoon in the BBC sitcom Absolutely Fabulous. She is also known for portraying Lynda Day, editor of the Junior Gazette, in Press Gang and Lydia Bennet in the 1995 television miniseries of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. Additionally, she played Dorcas Lane in the BBC's costume drama Lark Rise to Candleford, Carla Borrego in Jonathan Creek, and Jan Ward in the 2014 BBC One mystery Remember Me.

Contents

• 
  1 Early life and education
  


• 
  2 Career
  


• 
  3 Personal life
  


• 
  4 Filmography
  
  
  
  • 
    4.1 Film
    
  
  
  • 
    4.2 Television
    
  
  
  • 
    4.3 Video games
    
  
  
  
  


• 
  5 References
  


• 
  6 External links
  

Early life and education

Sawalha was born in Lambeth, London, the daughter of Roberta Lane and actor Nadim Sawalha. Her father was born in Madaba, Jordan. She was named after her paternal grandmother, a businesswoman who had received an award from Queen Noor for enterprise. She is of Jordanian, English, and French Huguenot ancestry.^[1]

Sawalha was educated at the Theatre Arts School, a fee-paying independent school which is part of the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts,^[2] based at the time in Clapham in south London, which she left at the age of fifteen.^[2]

She is part of an acting family; Sawalha's father Nadim appeared in the James Bond movies The Spy Who Loved Me and The Living Daylights, while her sister Nadia starred in the soap EastEnders and is now a television presenter and chat show host with whom she has appeared on Lily Savage's Blankety Blank.^[3]

Career

Sawalha made her debut in the 1982 BBC miniseries Fame Is the Spur^[4] and in 1988, played a small role in Inspector Morse on the episode "Last Seen Wearing". She first gained attention for her starring role in the Bafta award-winning ITV teenage comedy-drama Press Gang, which ran from 1989 to 1993.

In 1992 she starred in episode "Parade" (S2 E4) of Bottom as Veronica Head, a beautiful young barmaid at the Lamb and Flag, whom Richie tries to woo by boasting of his false adventures in the Falklands.

From 1991–94, she starred in the ITV family comedy Second Thoughts and continued with her character, Hannah (Lynda Bellingham's daughter), in the British Comedy Award-winning Faith in the Future (1995–98). In 1994, she played Mercy (Merry) Pecksniff in the BBC production of Martin Chuzzlewit.

From 1992 to 2012, Sawalha played strait-laced daughter Saffron Monsoon in the BBC sitcom Absolutely Fabulous alongside Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley. She appeared in the 1995 BBC adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice as Lydia Bennet, with Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth. She voiced Ginger in DreamWorks/Aardman's Chicken Run. She also played "Dawn the Wise Man" in The Flint Street Nativity on Christmas Eve.

In 2000 she appeared as Janet, the Australian barmaid ("Built for bar work; it's instinct... instinct!!") in the first series of the British sitcom Time Gentlemen Please. She also played the much put-upon PA to "Zak" in Argos TV adverts during 2002–2004, along with Richard E. Grant.^[5] She has also joined actor Ioan Gruffudd in the internationally successful TV adaptations of C. S. Forester's Horatio Hornblower novels, as the captain's wife Maria.^[6] The following year, she became Alan Davies's co-star in Jonathan Creek after Caroline Quentin left, appearing in a Christmas Special ("Satan's Chimney"). She returned for a series between 2003–2004.

In 2006, she participated in the third series of the genealogy documentary series Who Do You Think You Are?^[7] tracing her family's roots, which are Jordanian Bedouin on her father's side, and French Huguenot on her mother's. She also appeared in the pilot of BBC 1's A Taste of my Life presented by Nigel Slater.^[8] After a two-year break, she was back on screen in May 2007, competing in the BBC dog training celebrity reality show The Underdog Show.^[9] She then returned to acting in two successive BBC costume dramas; as Jessie Brown in 2007 series Cranford, followed by Lark Rise to Candleford in 2008. She provided the voice acting for Sister Hannah (a.k.a. "Hammer"), a main character in the 2008 Xbox 360 video game Fable II.^[10] In autumn 2014, Julia played the part of Jan Ward in BBC One's thriller miniseries Remember Me, featuring Michael Palin. On 9 May 2015 she read the account of a member of the Women's Land Army at VE Day 70: A Party to Remember in Horse Guards Parade, London that was broadcast live on BBC1.

Personal life

Sawalha lived with Press Gang co-star Dexter Fletcher, and subsequently comedian Richard Herring. She also had a relationship with Patrick Marber. She had an affair with Keith Allen, whom she met on the set of Martin Chuzzlewit.^[11]

On 1 January 2004, it was alleged in the tabloid newspapers that she had married boyfriend Alan Davies, her co-star in the television series Jonathan Creek. Both she and Davies, who avoided discussing their private lives in public, denied this, and took legal action against the reports.^[12]

After she met Rich Annetts at the Glastonbury Festival in 2005, the couple moved to Bath, Somerset, and lived in a flat close to the Royal Crescent. Sawalha started growing her own vegetables, attending yoga lessons and studying for an Open University English degree.^[9][13] Sawalha and Annetts have since split up.^[14]

Filmography

Film

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1981	Keep It in the Family	Walk-On Role	uncredited
1982	The Pirates of Penzance	Daughter	uncredited
	Buddy's Song	Kelly
1995	In The Bleak Midwinter	Nina Raymond (Ophelia)
1996	The Wind in the Willows	The Jailer's Daughter
2000	Chicken Run	Ginger (voice)	Animated film
2002	Venus and Mars	Marie
	The Final Curtain	Karen Willet
2016	Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie	Saffron Monsoon

Television

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1982	Fame Is the Spur	Amy	TV series (1 episode: "Episode 1.2")
	Educating Marmalade	Good Girl	TV series (4 episodes)
1988	Inspector Morse	Rachel	TV series (1 episode: "Last Seen Wearing")
1989	Press Gang	Lynda Day/Young Katherine Hill	TV series (43 episodes: 1989–1993) RTS Television Award – Best Actor
1990	Spatz	Chloe Fairbanks	TV series (1 episode: "The Sound of Muzak")
1991	El C.I.D.	Trudy	TV series (1 episode: "Thursday's Child")
	Casualty	Nikki Watson	TV series (1 episode: "Living In Hope")
	Second Thoughts	Hannah Grayshot	TV series (47 episodes: 1991–1994)
1992	Bottom	Veronica Head	TV series (1 episode: "Parade")
	Absolutely Fabulous	Saffron Monsoon	TV series (40 episodes: 1992–2012)
	The Word		TV series (1 episode: "Episode 3.2")
1993	Parallel 9		TV series (1 episode: "Episode 2.5")
1994	Lovejoy	Joanna Whymark	TV series (1 episode: "Double-Edged Sword")
	Keeper	Alison	tv short
	Martin Chuzzlewit	Mercy Pecksniff	TV series (6 episodes)
1995	Pride and Prejudice	Lydia Bennet	TV mini-series (6 episodes)
	Faith in the Future	Hannah Grayshot	TV series (22 episodes: 1995–1998)
1996	French and Saunders		TV series (1 episode: "Baywatch")
	Tales from the Crypt	Teresa	TV series (1 episode: "The Kidnapper")
1997	McLibel!	Helen Steel	TV mini-series (1 episode: "Episode 1.1")
	Ain't Misbehavin'	Dolly Nightingale	TV mini-series (3 episodes)
	An Audience with the Spice Girls		TV special
1998	Absolutely Fabulous: Absolutely Not!	Saffron Monsoon	video
	Light Lunch		TV series (1 episode: "The Future's Bright, the Future's Funny")
1999	Doctor Who: The Curse of Fatal Death	Emma	Charity spoof TV movie by Comic Relief
	The Flint Street Nativity	Wise Man	TV movie
	The Nearly Complete and Utter History of Everything	Catherine Parr	TV movie
	Late Lunch		TV series (1 episode: "#2.14")
1999–2000	Kipper the Dog	Mouse (voice)	Animated TV series (4 episodes)
2000	Mirrorball	Freda Keill	TV short
	Time Gentlemen Please	Janet Wilson	TV series (21 episodes: 2000–2001)
	Sheeep	Georgina (voice)	Animated TV series (26 episodes: 2000)
	The Hatching of 'Chicken Run'		TV special
	Loose Women		TV series (1 episode: "#2.13")
	Bob Martin		TV series (1 episode: "Through the Keyhole")
	Masterchef		TV series (1 episode: "#10.14")
	Poultry in Motion: The Making of Chicken Run	Herself	TV special
	HBO First Look	Herself	TV series (1 episode: "The Hatching of Chicken Run")
	Stars in Their Eyes		TV series (1 episode: "Cerys Matthews")
2001	Jonathan Creek	Carla Borrego	TV series (7 episodes: 2002–2004)
2003	Hornblower	Maria Mason/Hornblower	TV series (2 films: 2003)
2004	Comedy Connections	Narrator (voice)	TV series (14 episodes: 2003–2004)
	The Story of Absolutely Fabulous		TV special
	Hell's Kitchen		TV series (1 episode: "#1.4")
2006	A Taste of My Life		TV special
	Who Do You Think You Are?		TV series (1 episode: "Julia Sawalha")
2007	Cranford	Jessie Brown	TV series (5 episodes)
	The Underdog Show		TV series (unknown episodes)
	The Graham Norton Show		TV series (1 episode: "#1.7")
2008	Lark Rise to Candleford	Dorcas Lane	TV series (40 episodes: 2008–2011)
2009	The Alan Titchmarsh Show		TV series (1 episode: "9 March 2009")
2013	Agatha Christie's Marple	Mrs. Cresswell	TV series (1 episode: "Greenshaw's Folly")
2014	Remember Me	Jan Ward	TV series (3 episodes)
2016	Midsomer Murders	Penny Henderson	TV series (1 episode: "Saints and Sinners")

Video games

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2008	Fable II	Hannah/Hammer	Xbox 360 game

References

1. 
   ^ Julia's profile at BBC History
   


2. 
   ^ ^ab Sarah Gristwood (26 November 1995). "Absolutely fab". The Independent. Retrieved 7 August 2018..mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit}.mw-parser-output q{quotes:"""""""'""'"}.mw-parser-output code.cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:inherit;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-free a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/Lock-green.svg/9px-Lock-green.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-registration a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-gray-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-subscription a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-red-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration{color:#555}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription span,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration span{border-bottom:1px dotted;cursor:help}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration,.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-right{padding-right:0.2em}
   


3. 
   ^ Lily Savage's Blankety Blank. 4 March 2001. ITV.
   


4. 
   ^ Chicken Run DVD Cast Bio
   


5. 
   ^ "Withnail star takes Argos upmarket". The Guardian. 26 July 2002. Retrieved 29 January 2018.
   


6. 
   ^ "Hornblower:Duty" cast list on IMDB
   


7. 
   ^ "BBC ONE Autumn 2006". BBC. 18 July 2006.
   


8. 
   ^ BBC Food – A Taste of my Life Pilot episode description^{[dead link]}
   


9. 
   ^ ^ab 'Settled' Julia seeks new role Daily Express, 21 March 2007
   


10. 
    ^ "Fable II game review". The Telegraph. 3 November 2008. Retrieved 29 January 2018.
    


11. 
    ^ "I can't stand actors" 21 August 2005, The Observer
    


12. 
    ^ "TV stars act over marriage report". BBC News. 6 January 2004.
    


13. 
    ^ "Relative Values: Nadia and Julia Sawalha". The Sunday Times. London. 1 April 2007.
    


14. 
    ^ "Ab Fab star Julia Sawalha: My disastrous relationships have made me give up on ever becoming a mum". Daily Mail. 21 Mar 2008.
    

External links

• 
  Julia Sawalha on IMDb


• 
  Julia Sawalha on Who Do You Think You Are?
  

Authority control	WorldCat Identities BNE: XX4927638 GND: 143376578 ISNI: 0000 0001 1627 7037 LCCN: no96042272 VIAF: 41435438

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