# Victoria Wicks

Victoria Wicks (born Beverly Victoria Anne Wicks; 18 April 1959) is a British actress. She is known for her role as Sally Smedley in Channel 4's comedy series Drop the Dead Donkey (1990–1998), Mrs. Gideon in The Mighty Boosh (2004), and the College Director in Skins (2007–08). Her film appearances include The Imitation Game (2014) and High-Rise (2015). She is an associate of Howard Barker's theatre company, The Wrestling School.

## Biography
### Early life and education

Wicks was born Beverley Victoria Anne Wicks in Chippenham, Wiltshire, England, to Brian and Judith Wicks. Wicks's mother, Judith Bates, born 1933, was the second child of the writer H. E. Bates. Wicks is the niece of Jonathan Bates, a sound editor who died in 2008, and the television producer Richard Bates, who produced the television adaptation of The Darling Buds of May. Wicks is a director of Evensford Productions Ltd, the company set up in 1955 to protect and promote H. E. Bates's work.
Wicks trained at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama where she was awarded the Pernod and Bisquit Award for the most promising graduate.

### Career

Her first job was as acting assistant stage manager at Northampton Rep for a year, before going to Bristol Old Vic, Regent's Park and then the RSC. In 1988 Wicks was in Andy Hamilton's black comedy Tickets for the Titanic, and then went on to play Sally Smedley in all six series of Drop the Dead Donkey. The Mighty Boosh (a radio, television and stage show created by Noel Fielding and Julian Barratt) featured her in Series 1 as Mrs Gideon, the Head of Reptiles at the Zooniverse. Wicks also played Harriet Lawes, the Head of College in the first three series of Skins.
Wicks joined 'The Wrestling School' in 1996. The company was formed in 1988 for the sole purpose of performing the work of the dramatist Howard Barker. Since joining the company Wicks has appeared in nine plays by Barker, performing in London, Berlin, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Adelaide and also in Rouen, Grenoble, Le Mans and Paris for the co-production of Les Animaux en Paradis, which was performed in French by four British and five French actors. Wicks is an associate of The Wrestling School. In 2010 Wicks was invited to the Segal Theatre Center in New York as guest of Theatre Minima to celebrate a day-long event on the work of Howard Barker.
Wicks played the high priestess of the Sybillines in The Fires of Pompeii, a 2008 episode of Doctor Who. In 2014, she played Dorothy Clarke in The Imitation Game and Susannah Marshall in the E4 drama Glue (2014).

### Personal life

In 1984 Wicks married Peter Williams (divorced 2004); they have one daughter, Madelaine Rose, born 1985.

## Credits
### Work for Howard Barker

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1996 | Uncle Vanya | Helena | London, Berlin, Stockholm |
| 1998 | Ursula; Fear of the Estuary | Mother Placida | London, Birmingham, Copenhagen |
| 1999 | Scenes From an Execution | Rivera | BITE Festival, Barbican Theatre (London) |
| 2000 | The Ecstatic Bible | Mrs Golllancz | Adelaide Theatre Festival (Australia) |
| 2000 | He Stumbled | Turner, The Queen | Riverside Studios (London) and Samuel Beckett Theatre (Dublin) |
| 2001 | The Swing at Night | Klatura | Marionette Theatre for Puppet Theatre Barge |
| 2002 | Gertrude – The Cry | Gertrude | Elsinore Castle (Denmark), Birmingham Rep and Riverside Studios (London) |
| 2003 | 13 Objects | Cruel Cup, Kind Saucer, The Ring, Blue Shoe, The Drum | Birmingham Rep, Everyman Theatre (Liverpool) and Riverside Studios (London) |
| 2005 | The Fence in Its Thousandth Year | Algeria | Birmingham Rep, Oxford Playhouse, York Theatre Royal |
| 2005 | Les Animaux en Paradis | Tenna | Théâtre des Deux Rives (Rouen), Paris, Grenoble and Le Mans |
| 2008 | I Saw Myself | | Premiere reading New End Theatre, Hampstead |
| Unknown | Actress With an Unloved Child | | Premiere reading at Lewis Festival |
| Unknown | Screaming in Advance | | Premiere readings of Concentration and Dying in the Street at The Print Room (London) |
| 2010 | Smack Me | Thing, A Searcher | Premiere reading at the Purcell Room, Southbank Centre (London) |
| 1997 | The Love of a Good Man | Mrs Sylvia Toynbee | BBC R3 Drama |
| 1999 | A House of Correction | Lyndsay | BBC R3 Drama |
| 2001 | Knowledge and a Girl | The Queen | BBC R4 Drama |

### Television

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1984 | Prisoner of Zenda | Princess Flavia | episodes: 1-6 |
| 1985 | Adultery: My Little Grey Home in the West | Janet | Ch4 |
| 1986 | Two of Us | Jackie | |
| 1987 | Rumpole of the Bailey | Amanda Gleason | episode: "Rumpole and the Old, Old, Story" |
| 1987 | The Houseman's Tale | Allison Quothquan | episodes: 1-2 |
| 1987 | Hold the Dream | Sarah Lowther | episode: 1 |
| 1988 | Tickets for the Titanic | Arbuthnot | episode: "Pastoral Care" |
| 1988 | Gems | Elinor Whiteside | episodes: 3.25, 3.26, 3.27 |
| 1989 | Storyboard | Virginia | episode: "Snakes & Ladders" |
| 1989 | Snakes & Ladders | Hotel receptionist | episodes: 2 & 4 |
| 1990 | Grange Hill | Doctor Burton | episode: 13.17 |
| 1990 | Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less | Georgina Oakley | TV movie |
| 1990 | Drop the Dead Donkey | Sally Smedley | Ch4 |
| 1991 | Amnesty International's Big 30 | As Sally Smedley | |
| 1993 | Paul Merton: The Series | Emily | episode: 2.3 |
| 1993 | Blossom | Jacqueline Renaud | episode: 4.2 & 4.4 (Blossom in Paris) |
| 1993 | Comic Timing | Sarah St. John Walderbury | episode: "No Worries" |
| 1993 | Prince Cinders | Princess Lovelypenny (voice) | Animation |
| 1993 | The Main Event | As herself | BBC game show |
| 1994 | Children in Need | As herself | BBC |
| 1994 | You Bet | As herself | ITV game show ep: 7.13 |
| 1994 | Murder Most Horrid | Jocasta | episode: "We all hate Granny" |
| 1994 | Mud | Miss Palmer | |
| 1995 | Smith and Jones | | episode: 8.3 & 8.6 |
| 1995 | The Imaginatively Titled Punt & Dennis Show | | episode: 2.2 |
| 1995 | Stick with Me Kid | Christina Samone | |
| 1996 | Delta Wave | Olga Crick | |
| 1996 | Testament: The Bible in Animation | Jezebel (voice) | episode: Elijah |
| 1997 | Bright Hair (About the Bone) | Miss Montrose | TV movie |
| 1997 | Snap | Jane Taylor | |
| 1998 | Late Lunch with Mel and Sue | As herself | Ch4 ep: 2.3 |
| 2001 | Peak Practice | Judy | episode: 12.3 |
| 2001 | Bernard's Watch | Aunt Rowena | CITV |
| 2002 | Casualty | Connolly QC | |
| 2002, 2007, 2009, 2011–2012, 2015, 2022 | Doctors | Alison Matthews, Marjorie Middleton, Yvonne Diamond, Jenny Rockman, Jocasta Rathbone, Elspeth Manners, Jenny Nicholson | 7 episodes |
| 2002 | My Family | Bex's Mother | Also in 2003, 2005 |
| 2004 | The Brief | Magistrate | episode: "So Long, Samanatha" |
| 2004 | The Mighty Boosh | Mrs. Gideon | BBC 3 |
| 2004 | Midsomer murders | Helen Callaghan | episode: "Sins of Commission" |
| 2006 | Comedy Connections | As herself | |
| 2007 | M.I. High | Head of MI8/MI9 | |
| 2007 | My Family | Dinner Guest | |
| 2007 | Skins | Head of College (Harriet) | E4 |
| 2008 | Midsomer murders | Sarah Stone | episode: 18.6 "Talking to the Dead" |
| 2008 | The Object | Burlap Mum | |
| 2008 | Mistresses | Gemma Grey | |
| 2008 | Doctor Who | High Priestess of The Sybillines | episode: "The Fires of Pompeii" |
| 2009 | No Signal | | episode: 1.8 & 1.9 (You Me 'n' Him) |
| 2009 | Roar | Mother | |
| 2009 | Emmerdale | Mrs. Conway | episode: 1.5420 |
| 2009 | Collision | Angela Reeves | episode: 1, 2 & 5 |
| 2009 | Poirot | Mrs Swinburne | episode: "The Clocks" |
| 2010 | Sherlock | Margaret Patterson | episode: "A study in Pink" |
| 2010 | At Home with the Georgians / Behind Closed Doors | Lady Stanley | episode: "A Woman's Touch" |
| 2011 | EastEnders | Sandra Halliday | episode: 15 & 16 September |
| 2012 | Silent Witness | Lizzie Fraser | episode: "Death has no Dominion" parts I & II |
| 2013 | Wizards v Aliens | Chancellor Kooth | CBBC |
| 2014 | Glue | Susannah Marshall | E4 |
| 2014 | Crackanory | Mrs. Murray, Head teacher | episode: 2.4 (Self Storage & the Obituary Writer) |
| 2016 | Sliding | Bronwen | |
| 2017 | Finding your Feet | Pru - Swimmer | |
| 2018 | The Royals | Ingrid | episode: "Confess Yourself to Heaven" |
| 2019 | Welcome to the Powder Keg | Lois | |
| 2019 | Mary in the Mirror | Therapist | |
| 2021 | The Larkins (2021 TV series) | Mrs Fothergill | Also credited as SCRIPT EDITOR |
| Unknown | The Ward | Barbara | |
| Unknown | No Worries | Sarah | |
| Unknown | Streetwise | Mrs Daniels | |

### Film

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1986 | Ping Pong | Maggie Wong | Alan's wife |
| 1990 | Strike It Rich | Jane Truefit | |
| 2003 | What A Girl Wants | Henry's Secretary (Caroline) | |
| 2014 | The Imitation Game | Dorothy Clarke | Joan's mother |
| 2015 | High Rise | Miriam | |
| 2015 | Notes on Blindness | Sally (Librarian) | |
| 2016 | The Brother | Vendor | |

### Theatre

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1980 | Quartet to Murder | | Theatre Royal, Northampton |
| 1980 | Mother Goose | | Theatre Royal, Northampton |
| 1981 | Whose Life is it Anyway? | | Theatre Royal, Northampton |
| 1981 | Cinderella | | Bristol Old Vic |
| 1981 | The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui | | Bristol Old Vic |
| 1981 | The Country Wife | Mistress Squeamish | Bristol Old Vic |
| 1982 | Taming of the Shrew | A Haberdasher | Regents Park Open Air Theatre |
| 1982 | A Midsummer Night's Dream | Helena | Regents Park Open Air Theatre |
| 1983 | From War to War with Love | | New End Theatre, Hampstead |
| 1983 | Twelfth Night | Olivia | Royal Shakespeare Company |
| 1983 | Julius Caesar | Portia | Royal Shakespeare Company |
| 1983 | Measure for Measure | | Royal Shakespeare Company |
| 1983 | A New Way to Pay Old Debts | Waiting Woman | Royal Shakespeare Company |
| 1984 | Space Invaders | Shar | Royal Shakespeare Company |
| 1985 | Chinamen | Jo, Bee, and Alex | Latchmere, Battersea |
| 1986 | Charley's Aunt | Amy Spettigue | Theatre Royal, Plymouth |
| 1992 | As You Like It | Rosalind | Ludlow Festival |
| 1993 | Blithe Spirit | Elvira | Cheltenham Everyman Theatre |
| 1994 | Dilemma for Murder | | Watermill Theatre, Bagnor |
| 1995 | Mind the Gap by Meredith Oakes | Ginny | Hampstead Theatre |
| 2006 | A Woman of No Importance | Rachel Arbuthnot | Salisbury Playhouse |
| 2008 | Quartermaine's Terms | Melanie Garth | Touring production. Kenwright |
| 2015 | The One that Got Away | Madame Latour | Theatre Royal, Bath |
| Unknown | As You Like It | Hymen | |
| 2024 | Drop the Dead Donkey - Revisited | Sally Smedley | National tour - multiple venues |

### Radio

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| Unknown | Anything Legal | Doreen | By Wally K. Daly |
| 1982 | The Cask of Amontillado | First Lady | (BBC R4) By Nick Fisher |
| 1982 | It's Disgusting at Your Age | Penny | (BBC R4) By Jacqueline Wilson |
| 1982 | Get Together | Susy | (BBC R4) By Barbara Clegg |
| 1983 | The Cleverest Man at Oxford | Gillian | (BBC R4) By Geoffrey Parkinson |
| 1984 | Riding to Jerusalem | Amelia Man | (BBC R4) By Elspeth Sandys |
| 1985 | Albert's Extra Parliamentary Activities | Receptionist | (BBC R4) By Nick Fisher |
| 1991 | The Cabaret of Dr Caligari | Anthrax | (BBC R4) By Alan Gilbey |
| 2000 | The Secret Parts | Rosemary Malcolm | (BBC R4) Adapted by David Edgar |