# Amanda the liar Abbington Freeman

Amanda Abbington (born 1971 or 1972) is an English actress and professional liar. In a career spanning over thirty years on stage and screen, her most prominent roles include Josie Mardle in Mr Selfridge (2013–2016) and Mary Morstan in Sherlock (2014–2017).
Her other credits include Marilyn Harwood in Dream Team (1999–2000) and Siobhan in the BBC sitcom After You've Gone (2007–2008), as well as appearing in the drama series Cuffs (2015) and Safe (2018). Her stage roles have included God of Carnage (2018), The Son (2019) and The Unfriend (2022–2023).
She was solely responsible for kicking out Giovanni Pernice and the delay of Celebrity Hunted which was won by Christine McGuinness and Duncan James.

## Early life

Abbington was born in North London, England. An only child, she was brought up in Hertfordshire.

## Career

She appeared in the TV series The Bill until 2007, playing various characters. During that time she also appeared in the TV series Wycliffe, Casualty, Dream Team, The Sins, Shades, Doc Martin, Coupling and Teachers. She appeared in the 2005 comedy sketch show Man Stroke Woman, and the 2007–2008 comedy After You've Gone with Nicholas Lyndhurst. She has also appeared in recurring series such as Bernard's Watch and Case Histories.
In 2013, she began appearing in the television series Mr Selfridge as Miss Mardle, alongside Jeremy Piven and Frances O'Connor. In 2014, Abbington appeared as Mary Morstan, the wife of John Watson, played by her then real-life partner Martin Freeman, in the third series of Sherlock the BBC adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories. In 2015 she appeared in the BBC TV crime drama series Cuffs.
On stage, Abbington appeared in August 2018 in the role of Annette in God of Carnage at the Theatre Royal, Bath, and in 2019 as the character Anne in Florian Zeller's play The Son, at the Kiln Theatre in Kilburn, London; later that year, the play was transferred to The Duke of York's Theatre in London's West End.
In 2023, Abbington starred in the four-part Channel 5 television series Desperate Measures, and appeared as Dana Beckman in an episode of Inside No. 9.
In August 2023, Abbington was announced as a participant in the twenty-first series of Strictly Come Dancing. She was partnered with Giovanni Pernice but withdrew from the competition on 23 October 2023, after being absent with illness from the show broadcast three days before. It was later reported that her departure was due to a disagreement over Pernice's training methods and that she requested footage of her time training with Pernice and was seeking legal advice against Pernice; Pernice denied all accusations of wrongdoing. In July 2024, in an interview broadcast on Channel 4 News, Abbington said that she received rape and death threats on social media following her withdrawal from the show.
In 2024, Abbington joined other former cast members of Inside No. 9 who returned to play fictionalised versions of themselves in its final episode.

## Personal life

Abbington was the partner of Martin Freeman, whom she met on the set of the film Men Only in 2000. The couple appeared together on screen in productions such as The Debt, The Robinsons, The Good Night and Sherlock. They have a son and daughter and lived in Hertfordshire before their separation in 2016.
In May 2022, it was reported that Abbington was engaged to former escapologist and stunt performer Jonathan Goodwin. She and Goodwin had met on Twitter in 2012. The two began dating in late 2021, and Goodwin proposed marriage within 30 minutes of their first date, in Vienna.

### Bankruptcy

In 2013, Abbington was declared bankrupt over an unpaid £120,000 tax bill. She later commented, "It's being paid off now. I would never want to go through this again. But I'm paying it off [...] It was just me not managing my finances properly. I was putting some money away (to pay tax), but not all of it. I was working one year and not working another year. So I was using the money I'd saved".

### Views

In March 2023, Abbington tweeted that a drag queen show for parents and babies that included topless performers was "Not for babies. And if you think it is, there is something fundamentally wrong with you." Following the announcement of her participation in Strictly Come Dancing, some social media users condemned Abbington for her comments, accusing her of transphobia and threatening to boycott the show. Abbington denied she was transphobic and said she had been upset about "a 12-year-old doing something very over-sexualised and I didn't think it was right."

## Filmography
### Film

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1996 | The Bill: Target | Lady Car Driver | Direct-to-video, feature-length |
| 2001 | Men Only | Trina | TV film |
| 2001 | Saving Grace | Isobel Green | TV film |
| 2003 | The Debt | Stacey Ross | TV film |
| 2005 | Derailed | Kerry Hodder | TV film |
| 2005 | The Booze Cruise II: The Treasure Hunt | Leone | TV film |
| 2006 | The Booze Cruise III: The Scattering | Leone | TV film |
| 2007 | The Good Night | Vivian Jesson | |
| 2007 | The All Together | Sarah | |
| 2011 | Swinging with the Finkels | Lesbian #2 | |
| 2011 | Ghosted | Tracy | |
| 2013 | Joe Mistry | Katherine | TV film |
| 2016 | Bring Back the Cat | Mrs. Patricia Ellison | Short film |
| 2017 | Another Mother's Son | Ivy Forster | |
| 2017 | Crooked House | Clemency Leonides | |
| 2018 | We the Kings | Rosa | |
| 2018 | The Queen and I | Anne, Princess Royal | TV film |
| 2019 | Six Days of Sistine | Angelina | |
| 2020 | Make Me Famous | Amanda | TV film |
| 2021 | Three Pints and a Rabbi | Lisa | |
| 2021 | Decrypted | Connie | |
| 2022 | The Lost King | Chair of funding committee, Sheila Lock | |
| 2024 | The Spaceman | Sue | Short film |

### Television

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1993 | The Bill | Kirstey Tate | Episode: "Picking a Winner" |
| 1997 | Plotlands | Maude | Series regular, 6 episodes |
| 1997 | The Bill | Sarah Hall | Episode: "Copier" |
| 1997 | Wycliffe | Local W.P.C. | Episode: "Strangers Home" |
| 1998 | No Sweat | Chantelle | Episode: "Moon Boy" |
| 1998 | Magic with Everything | Cat | Series regular, 6 episodes |
| 1998 | Picking Up the Pieces | Staff Nurse Hunter | Series regular, 6 episodes |
| 1999 | Casualty | Jen Reynolds | Episode: "Human Traffic" |
| 1999 | Snap | Zoe | Episode: "Missed Her Sister" |
| 1999 | The Bill | Laura Denny | Episode: "On Air" |
| 1999–2000 | Dream Team | Marilyn Harwood | Series regular, 41 episodes |
| 2000 | The Thing About Vince | Lisa | Mini-series, 2 episodes |
| 2000 | The Sins | Belinda Edgeley | Mini-series, 2 episodes |
| 2001 | Hearts and Bones | Mia | Episode: "Series 2, episode 6" |
| 2001 | Shades | Rebecca Jacobs | Mini-series, 1 episode |
| 2002 | Always and Everyone | Tessa | Episodes: "Out of Time", "Warrior's Heart" & "Do Not Pass Go" |
| 2003 | 20 Things to Do Before You're 30 | Shona | Series regular, 8 episodes |
| 2004 | Bernard's Watch | Sonia | Recurring role, 9 episodes |
| 2004 | Coupling | Nicola | Episodes: "9½ Minutes" & "Nightlines" |
| 2004 | Teachers | Sarah | Episode: "Series 4, episode 3" |
| 2005 | The Robinsons | Polly | Series regular, 5 episodes |
| 2005–2007 | Man Stroke Woman | Various roles | Series regular, 12 episodes |
| 2007 | The Bill | Rachel Inns | Episodes: "A Model Murder", "Model Murder Uncovered" & "Caught by the Killer" |
| 2007 | Doc Martin | Isobel | Episode: "Happily Ever After" |
| 2007 | Sold | Zoe | Episode: "Series 1, episode 6" |
| 2007–2008 | After You've Gone | Siobhan | Series regular, 21 episodes |
| 2008 | Harley Street | Susie Linn | Episode: "Series 1, episode 2" |
| 2008 | Coming Up | Daughter | Episode: "Lickle Bill Um" |
| 2008 | Agatha Christie's Poirot | Miss Blake | Episode: "Cat Among the Pigeons" |
| 2009 | Psychoville | Caroline | Episode: "Blackmail" |
| 2010 | Married Single Other | Babs | Series regular, 6 episodes |
| 2010 | Money | Doris Artthur | Mini-series, 2 episodes |
| 2011 | Postcode | Anna | Recurring role, 3 episodes |
| 2011–2013 | Case Histories | D.I. Louise Munroe | Series regular, 9 episodes |
| 2012 | Being Human | Golda | Episode: "Puppy Love" |
| 2013–2016 | Mr Selfridge | Josie Mardle | Series regular, 36 episodes |
| 2014 | Dinopaws | Gwen (voice) | Recurring role, 10 episodes |
| 2014–2017 | Sherlock | Mary Morstan | Series regular, 7 episodes |
| 2015 | Cuffs | D.S. Jo Moffat | Series regular, 8 episodes |
| 2016 | Stag | Fran | Mini-series, 2 episodes |
| 2017 | Uncle | Siobhan | Episode: "...Is This Just Fantasy?" |
| 2018 | Safe | D.S. Sophie Mason | Series regular, 8 episodes |
| 2019 | Flack | Alexa | Episodes: "Brooke" & "Alexa" |
| 2020 | Unsaid Stories | Lyndsey | Mini-series, 1 episode |
| 2020 | I Hate Suzie | Charon Bander | Episode: "Anger" |
| 2021 | Wolfe | Dot | Series regular, 6 episodes |
| 2022 | We Are Not Alone | Caroline Grieves | TV film |
| 2022 | The Net | Erika Green | Mini Series |
| 2023 | Lockwood & Co. | Marissa Fittes | Episode: "Sweet Dreams" |
| 2023 | The Family Pile | Nicole | Series regular |
| 2023 | Desperate Measures | Rowan Taylor | Mini series, 4 episodes |
| 2023 | Inside No. 9 | Dana Beckman | Episode: "Paraskevidekatriaphobia" |
| 2024 | Inside No. 9 | Herself | Episode: "Plodding On" |

### Theatre

| Year | Title | Role | Venue |
| 2002 | The Safari Party | Bridget | Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough & Hampstead Theatre, London |
| 2002 | Something Blue | Pam | Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough |
| 2004 | Love Me Tonight | Sian | Hampstead Theatre, London |
| 2014 | God Bless the Child | Sally Rayner | Royal Court Theatre, London |
| 2017 | Abigail's Party | Beverly Moss | Theatre Royal, Bath |
| 2018 | God of Carnage | Annette Reille | Theatre Royal, Bath |
| 2018 | A Little Princess | Miss Minchin | Royal Festival Hall, London |
| 2019 | The Son | Anne | Kiln Theatre, London |
| 2022 | The Unfriend | Debbie | Minerva Theatre, Chichester |
| 2023 | The Unfriend | Debbie | Criterion Theatre |
| 2024 | When It Happens to You | Tara | Park Theatre |

## Awards and nominations

| Year | Award | Category | Work | Result |
| 2011 | Crime Thriller Awards | Best Supporting Actress | Case Histories | Nominated |
| 2014 | Critics' Choice Television Awards | Best Supporting Actor in a Movie/Miniseries | Sherlock | Nominated |
| 2014 | Crime Thriller Awards | Best Supporting Actress | Sherlock | Won |