   julia sawalha (born 9 september 1968) is an english actress known mainly for her role as saffron monsoon in 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 and carla borrego in jonathan creek. ==early life== sawalha was born in london, the daughter of roberta lane and actor 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, english, and french huguenot ancestry.julia's profile at bbc history 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 miniseries fame is the spurchicken run dvd cast bio 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. from 1991â94, she starred in the itv family comedy second thoughts and continued with her character, hannah (lynda bellingham's daughter), in the [[british comedy
1968_births 20th-century_English_actresses 21st-century_English_actresses Actresses_from_London English_child_actresses English_film_actresses English_people_of_Huguenot_descent English_people_of_Jordanian_descent English_television_actresses English_voice_actresses Living_people