Julia Sawalha

Julia Sawalha (born 9 September 1968) is an English actress best known for her roles of Saffron Monsoon in Absolutely Fabulous, Lynda Day, editor of The Junior Gazette in Press Gang, Lydia Bennet in the 1995 television miniseries of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice and Dorcas Lane in the BBC's costume drama Lark Rise to Candleford.

Biography

Early life

Sawalha was born in London, the daughter of Roberta and Nadim Sawalha. She was named after her grandmother, a Jordanian businesswoman who had received an award from Queen Noor for enterprise. She is of Jordanian, British, and French Huguenot ancestry.^[1] She was born into an acting family: her father Nadim is an actor who 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.

Career

Sawalha made her debut in the 1982 BBC mini series Fame is the Spur^[2] though she first gained public attention for her starring role in the Bafta award-winning ITV teenage comedy/drama Press Gang which ran from 1989 to 1993. The on-screen chemistry between the two leads was reflected off-screen, as she and co-star Dexter Fletcher became an item for several years. Prior to starring in Press Gang, Sawalha played a bit role in the British TV drama Inspector Morse on the episode 'Last Seen Wearing' which aired on March 8 1988. 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, Charity (Cherry) Pecksniff's giddy and spoiled sister who is wooed and won and ultimately ground into submission and misery by Jonas Chuzzlewit in the BBC production of "Martin Chuzzlewit." In her most recent series, Julia, plays post mistress Miss Dorcas Lane, a strong and independent woman, and a devoted member of the post office. She takes in her cousin, Laura Timmins, a young girl from the nearby hamlet of Lark Rise. There has been two series and Miss Lane has gone through all trouble and trauma in both.

From 1992 to 2005, she played straight-laced daughter Saffron Monsoon in the BBC sitcom Absolutely Fabulous alongside Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley. She starred in the 1995 BBC adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice as Lydia Bennet, co-starring opposite Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth. She also voiced Ginger in DreamWorks/Aardman's Chicken Run.

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. She has also joined acclaimed actor Ioan Gruffudd in the internationally successful TV/DVD adaptations of CS Forester's Horatio Hornblower novels, as the captain's first wife Maria. The following year, she became the Alan Davies 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?^[3] 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.^[4] 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.^[5] 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 Xbox 360 video game Fable II.

Personal life

She dated and lived with Press Gang co-star Dexter Fletcher, and subsequently comedian Richard Herring. Sawalha also dated Patrick Marber. She reportedly had an affair with actor Keith Allen, the father of Lily Allen.^[6]

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.^[7] The couple split up after Davies reportedly refused to commit - and was branded "a miserable git" by her sister Nadia.^[8]

After meeting Rich Annetts at the Glastonbury Festival in 2005, the couple moved to Bath, Somerset and lived in a flat close to the Royal Crescent. Annetts had a canal boat on the Kennet and Avon canal, which the couple would regularly visit. The couple then moved to a cottage in the Somerset countryside, which they renamed Flowers Cottage.^[9] Sawalha started growing her own vegetables, attending yoga lessons and is studying for an Open University English degree.^[5][10] Sawalha and Annetts have since split up, in part caused by her return to acting in Cranford.

Filmography

TV

• Absolutely Fabulous
• Bottom: in the Episode, "Parade"
• Casualty: in the Episode, "Living in Hope"
• Doctor Who and the Curse of Fatal Death
• El CID
• Faith in the Future
• The Flint Street Nativity
• French and Saunders
• Hornblower
• Inspector Morse: in the Episode, "Last Seen Wearing"
• Jonathan Creek
• Lovejoy: in the Episode, "Double Edged Sword"
• Martin Chuzzlewit
• Press Gang
• Pride and Prejudice
• Second Thoughts
• Sheeep (Voice)
• Tales from the Crypt: in the 7th Season Episode, "The Kidnapper"
• Time Gentlemen Please
• Who Do You Think You Are?
• A Taste of my Life
• Cranford
• Lark Rise to Candleford
• The Graham Norton Show
• Late Lunch
• Teen Win, Lose or Draw

Films

• Buddy's Song
• Chicken Run (2000)
• In the Bleak Midwinter (aka A Midwinter's Tale)
• The Wind in the Willows
• The Madness of King George (1994) (She played one of King George III's many daughters)

Video Games

• Fable II (2008)

References

External links

• Julia Sawalha at the Internet Movie Database
• Julia Sawalha on Who Do You Think You Are?