Josie Lawrence

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Josie Lawrence (born 6 June 1959) is a British comedienne and actor best known for her work with the Comedy Store Players improvisational troupe, the television series Whose Line Is It Anyway? and more recently her role as Manda Best in EastEnders.

Career

Stage

Her first theatre job was playing a young boy in a production of The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists at the Half Moon Theatre. During the 1980s, she was also involved in a play called Passionaria at the Newcastle Playhouse, starring Denise Black and Kate McKenzie, and they later formed the jazz group Denise Black and the Kray Sisters.^[1]

Her move into comedy came as a result of starring in a Donmar Warehouse play called Songs For Stray Cats and hearing the audience invited to supply lines and ideas for improvisers appearing in after-show cabaret.

"I played a manic depressive Glaswegian in the play and I'd seen Jim (Sweeney) on the circuit when I was a singer with Denise Black and The Kray Sisters. So I stayed behind and watched one night and then, because I knew Jim, I said could I try it because it looked brilliant and it was one of those things I found I could do. You suddenly find your little baby. After that I joined The Comedy Store Players and then this TV show called Whose Line Is It Anyway? came along."^[1]

In 1994-1996 Lawrence played Katharine in the Royal Shakespeare Company production of The Taming of the Shrew in both Stratford-upon-Avon and London, for which she received a Dame Peggy Ashcroft award for Best Actress.^[2] She also appeared in Faust and The Cherry Orchard and starred as Benedick in an all-female production of Much Ado About Nothing at Shakespeare's Globe, having played Beatrice previously at Manchester's Royal Exchange. She later took over the lead role of Anna in the stage musical The King and I in London's West End, replacing Elaine Paige. In 2005, she appeared with Victoria Wood, Julie Walters and Celia Imrie in the cult West End production of Wood's Acorn Antiques: The Musical.

In April and May 2008, Lawrence took the lead role in Tom Stoppard's Hapgood at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre and later at the West Yorkshire Playhouse. She played the part of a secret spymaster given the task of exposing a traitor who is leaking vital information to the Russians.^[3] She will be co-directing The Time Step, a comedy about fantasies and talent contests, with Linda Marlow from 30 July at the Edinburgh Festival.^[4]

Television

Lawrence came to public attention as a regular guest on the Channel 4 improvisational comedy series Whose Line Is It Anyway? on its launch in 1988. A talented singer, Lawrence's speciality on Whose Line was her ability to improvise songs on the spot. She was the first female performer to regularly perform and featured on the show until 1997, which was the final UK series to be filmed in London. She also performed in two episodes of the American edition of the show in 1999.

In 1991, she had her own short-lived comedy series Josie, also on Channel 4. Her other television work includes the comedy series Not with a Bang and Downwardly Mobile, and she is remembered for her performances as Maggie Costello in the cricketing comedy drama Outside Edge alongside Timothy Spall and Brenda Blethyn, for which she was awarded the Spectacle Wearer of the Year award in 1993. She went on to perform in Sealed with a Loving Kiss and Lunch in the Park as part of the Paul Merton in Galton and Simpson's... series on 16 February 1996 and 21 October 1997. She appeared in the 1999 made-for-TV movie The Flint Street Nativity as both Debbie Bennett and Debbie's mother. In 2001 she played Camilla in A Many Splintered Thing.

In 2006 she starred alongside Peter Davison in The Complete Guide to Parenting as Phoebe Huntley. She has also recently appeared in the BBC 1 drama series Robin Hood and as Mrs Jiniwin in the 2007 ITV adaptation of The Old Curiosity Shop. She appeared in an episode of the 2007 E4 teen comedy/drama Skins, playing Liz Jenkins, estranged mother of Sid Jenkins, a role which she reprised in the second series.

She has appeared as a guest on the panel show games QI and Never Mind the Buzzcocks.

Lawrence joined the cast of EastEnders in March 2009. She plays an old flame of Phil Mitchell called Amanda Best.^[5]. On 16th November 2009 it was announced that she is to leave EastEnders in 2010 ^[6]

She was featured in a celebrity special of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? with Meera Syal that aired on 31 January 2009.^[7]

Radio

Lawrence starred in three series of the improvised comedy series The Masterson Inheritance from 1993 to 1995 alongside Paul Merton, Phelim McDermott, Caroline Quentin, Lee Simpson and Jim Sweeney. Each episode comprised a different time period, and the plots were improvised based on suggestions from the studio audience. One unaired episode was produced and narrated by Lawrence, but it was released on the internet by Jim Sweeney on his official site.

The BBC Radio 4 series The Lawrence Sweeney Mix aired from 27 February to 20 March 2007 and was described as "Josie Lawrence and Jim Sweeney create improvised sketches from audience suggestions".^[8] Series 2 began airing on 29 January 2008.^[9]

She starred in two other BBC Radio 4 comedy series: the science fiction comedy Married in 1996 and the dark comedy series Vent in 2006 as well as appearing in a Galton and Simpson Radio Playhouse 50th Anniversary recording of Clicquot et Fils alongside Richard Griffiths and Roger Lloyd Pack that originally aired on 29 December 1998.

Lawrence made her debut appearance in the long-running BBC Radio 4 show Just A Minute on 7 January 2008 and returned again in the following series.

Audio books

Lawrence has lent her voice to several audiobooks, the majority of which were books for children. She has recorded several of the books in Roger Hargreaves' Little Miss series, namely, Bossy, Giggles, Trouble, Tiny, Sunshine, Naughty, Somersault and Neat and four of Jacqueline Wilson's books, Secrets, The Illustrated Mum, Bad Girls and The Bed and Breakfast Star. She has also recorded books from Emma Thomson's Felicity Wishes, Eric Hill's Spot the Dog and Tony Bradman's Dilly the Dinosaur, as well as Philip Ridley's Mercedes Ice and Julia Donaldson's Room on the Broom. For adults, Lawrence has recorded tapes of Rosie Thomas's Sun at Midnight, Lynee Truss's Going Loco and Daphne du Maurier's Jamaica Inn.

Video games

Her latest voice-over role was as a peasant in the Assassin's Creed action/adventure game from Ubisoft. She also appeared on the 1992/1993 series of GamesMaster, playing Mad Dog McCree winning her challenge.

Charity

In 2003 Lawrence spent eight months walking across China, Cuba, Peru and Tanzania for Breakthrough Breast Cancer and helped to raise over £550,000.^[2] She had to wear a knee brace throughout the trek because of damage to her anterior cruciate ligament.^[10]

In 2005 she climbed Mount Kilimanjaro for Sunfield, a school for children with autism and complex learning needs, of which she is a patron.^[11] On 21 April 2008, she hosted a VIP-night performance of Hapgood at The Birmingham Rep in aid of Sunfield and raised a further £3,500 for the charity.^[12] She is also a supporter of the National Autistic Society's Make School Make Sense campaign.^[13] In 2009, Lawrence raised £25,000 for Sunfield by appearing on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire with Meera Syal.^[14]

Lawrence and actor Shane Richie participated in the final leg of the celebrity Around the World in 80 Days challenge to raise money for Children in Need 2009. They travelled from Memphis to Wilmington and then to London, UK over 15 days.^[15]

Personal life

Josie Lawrence was born Wendy Lawrence in Old Hill, Sandwell. She has a brother, John, and sister, Janet, 10 years older who are twins. They were brought up in nearby Cradley Heath, where her father worked for British Leyland and her mother as a dinner lady. She says everyone in her family has a wicked, dry sense of humour.

She trained at Dartington College of Arts from 1978 to 1981, receiving a bachelor of arts honours degree. In 1996, Dartington awarded her an honorary doctorate of arts,^[2] and she has since been awarded a further two, the second an honorary doctorate of letters from the University of Wolverhampton in 2004^[16] and the third in 2006 awarded by Aston University for her services to the entertainment industry.^[17]

She currently lives in Bethnal Green, East London,^[18] and has never married. She has two cats, the long-haired ginger Aynuk and the black-and-white Ayli, both named after the Black Country characters Aynuk and Ayli, who feature prominently in jokes about Black Country dialect.^[19] In addition to performing, she also paints watercolours.

References

External links

• Josie Lawrence at the Internet Movie Database

v • d • e Whose Line Is It Anyway? UK version Host Clive Anderson Regular contestants Stephen Frost · Stephen Fry · Josie Lawrence · Mike McShane · Paul Merton · Colin Mochrie · Greg Proops · John Sessions · Brad Sherwood · Tony Slattery · Steve Steen  · Ryan Stiles · Jim Sweeney  · Sandi Toksvig Musicians Colin Sell · Richard Vranch US version Host Drew Carey Regular contestants Wayne Brady · Chip Esten · Kathy Greenwood · Colin Mochrie · Greg Proops · Brad Sherwood · Denny Siegel · Ryan Stiles · Jeff Davis Musicians Laura Hall · Linda Taylor · Cece Worrall-Ruben Related topics List of UK episodes · List of games · Drew Carey's Green Screen Show