Julia Sawalha

Julia Sawalha (born 9 September 1968) is an English actress known mainly for her role as Saffron Monsoon in the BBC sitcom 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, Carla Borrego in Jonathan Creek, and Jan Ward in the 2014 BBC One mystery Remember Me.
== Early life and education ==
Sawalha was born in Lambeth, London, the daughter of Roberta Lane and actor Nadim Sawalha. Her father was born in Madaba, Jordan. She was named after her paternal grandmother, a businesswoman who had received an award from Queen Noor for enterprise. She is of Jordanian, English, and French Huguenot ancestry.[1]
Sawalha was educated at the Theatre Arts School, a fee-paying independent school which is part of the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts,[2] based at the time in Clapham in south London, which she left at the age of fifteen.[2]
She is part of an acting family; Sawalha's father Nadim 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 with whom she has appeared on Lily Savage's Blankety Blank.[3]
== Career ==
Sawalha made her debut in the 1982 BBC miniseries Fame Is the Spur[4] 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.
In 1992 she starred in episode "Parade" (S2 E4) of Bottom as Veronica Head, a beautiful young barmaid at the Lamb and Flag, whom Richie tries to woo by boasting of his false adventures in the Falklands.
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 in the BBC production of Martin Chuzzlewit.
From 1992 to 2012, Sawalha played strait-laced daughter Saffron Monsoon in the BBC sitcom Absolutely Fabulous alongside Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley. She appeared in the 1995 BBC adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice as Lydia Bennet, with Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth. She voiced Ginger in DreamWorks/Aardman's Chicken Run. She also played "Dawn the Wise Man" in The Flint Street Nativity on Christmas Eve.
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.[5] She has also joined actor Ioan Gruffudd in the internationally successful TV adaptations of C. S. Forester's Horatio Hornblower novels, as the captain's wife Maria.[6] The following year, she became Alan Davies's 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?[7] 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.[8]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.[9] 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 2008 Xbox 360 video game Fable II.[10] In autumn 2014, Julia played the part of Jan Ward in BBC One's thriller miniseries Remember Me, featuring Michael Palin. On 9 May 2015 she read the account of a member of the Women's Land Army at VE Day 70: A Party to Remember in Horse Guards Parade, London that was broadcast live on BBC1.
== Personal life ==
Sawalha lived with Press Gang co-star Dexter Fletcher, and subsequently comedian Richard Herring. She also had a relationship with Patrick Marber. She had an affair with Keith Allen, whom she met on the set of Martin Chuzzlewit.[11]
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.[12]
After she met Rich Annetts at the Glastonbury Festival in 2005, the couple moved to Bath, Somerset, and lived in a flat close to the Royal Crescent. Sawalha started growing her own vegetables, attending yoga lessons and studying for an Open University English degree.[9][13] Sawalha and Annetts have since split up.[14]
== Filmography ==
=== Film ===
Year	Film 	Role 	Notes
1981	Keep It in the Family 	Walk-On Role 	uncredited
1982	The Pirates of Penzance 	Daughter 	uncredited
1982	Buddy's Song 	Kelly 	
1995	In The Bleak Midwinter 	Nina Raymond (Ophelia)	
1996	The Wind in the Willows 	The Jailer's Daughter 	
2000	Chicken Run 	Ginger (voice) 	Animated film
2002	Venus and Mars 	Marie 	
2002	The Final Curtain 	Karen Willet 	
2016	Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie	Saffron Monsoon 	
=== Television ===
Year 	Film 	Role 	Notes
1982 	Fame Is the Spur 	Amy 	TV series (1 episode: "Episode 1.2")
1982 	Educating Marmalade 	Good Girl 	TV series (4 episodes)
1988 	Inspector Morse 	Rachel 	TV series (1 episode: "Last Seen Wearing")
1989 	Press Gang 	Lynda Day/Young Katherine Hill	TV series (43 episodes: 1989–1993) 
RTS Television Award – Best Actor
1990 	Spatz 	Chloe Fairbanks 	TV series (1 episode: "The Sound of Muzak")
1991 	El C.I.D. 	Trudy 	TV series (1 episode: "Thursday's Child")
1991 	Casualty 	Nikki Watson 	TV series (1 episode: "Living In Hope")
1991 	Second Thoughts 	Hannah Grayshot 	TV series (47 episodes: 1991–1994)
1992 	Bottom 	Veronica Head 	TV series (1 episode: "Parade")
1992 	Absolutely Fabulous 	Saffron Monsoon 	TV series (40 episodes: 1992–2012)
1992 	The Word 	 	TV series (1 episode: "Episode 3.2")
1993 	Parallel 9 	 	TV series (1 episode: "Episode 2.5")
1994 	Lovejoy 	Joanna Whymark 	TV series (1 episode: "Double-Edged Sword")
1994 	Keeper 	Alison 	tv short
1994 	Martin Chuzzlewit 	Mercy Pecksniff 	TV series (6 episodes)
1995 	Pride and Prejudice 	Lydia Bennet 	TV mini-series (6 episodes)
1995 	Faith in the Future 	Hannah Grayshot 	TV series (22 episodes: 1995–1998)
1996 	French and Saunders 	 	TV series (1 episode: "Baywatch")
1996 	Tales from the Crypt 	Teresa 	TV series (1 episode: "The Kidnapper")
1997 	McLibel! 	Helen Steel 	TV mini-series (1 episode: "Episode 1.1")
1997 	Ain't Misbehavin' 	Dolly Nightingale 	TV mini-series (3 episodes)
1997 	An Audience with the Spice Girls 	 	TV special
1998 	Absolutely Fabulous: Absolutely Not! 	Saffron Monsoon 	video
1998 	Light Lunch 	 	TV series (1 episode: "The Future's Bright, the Future's Funny")
1999 	Doctor Who: The Curse of Fatal Death 	Emma 	Charity spoof TV movie by Comic Relief
1999 	The Flint Street Nativity 	Wise Man 	TV movie
1999 	The Nearly Complete and Utter History of Everything	Catherine Parr 	TV movie
1999 	Late Lunch 	 	TV series (1 episode: "#2.14")
1999–2000	Kipper the Dog 	Mouse (voice) 	Animated TV series (4 episodes)
2000 	Mirrorball 	Freda Keill 	TV short
2000 	Time Gentlemen Please 	Janet Wilson 	TV series (21 episodes: 2000–2001)
2000 	Sheeep 	Georgina (voice) 	Animated TV series (26 episodes: 2000)
2000 	The Hatching of 'Chicken Run' 	 	TV special
2000 	Loose Women 	 	TV series (1 episode: "#2.13")
2000 	Bob Martin 	 	TV series (1 episode: "Through the Keyhole")
2000 	Masterchef 	 	TV series (1 episode: "#10.14")
2000 	Poultry in Motion: The Making of Chicken Run 	Herself 	TV special
2000 	HBO First Look 	Herself 	TV series (1 episode: "The Hatching of Chicken Run")
2000 	Stars in Their Eyes 	 	TV series (1 episode: "Cerys Matthews")
2001 	Jonathan Creek 	Carla Borrego 	TV series (7 episodes: 2002–2004)
2003 	Hornblower 	Maria Mason/Hornblower 	TV series (2 films: 2003)
2004 	Comedy Connections 	Narrator (voice) 	TV series (14 episodes: 2003–2004)
2004 	The Story of Absolutely Fabulous 	 	TV special
2004 	Hell's Kitchen 	 	TV series (1 episode: "#1.4")
2006 	A Taste of My Life 	 	TV special
2006 	Who Do You Think You Are? 	 	TV series (1 episode: "Julia Sawalha")
2007 	Cranford 	Jessie Brown 	TV series (5 episodes)
2007 	The Underdog Show 	 	TV series (unknown episodes)
2007 	The Graham Norton Show 	 	TV series (1 episode: "#1.7")
2008 	Lark Rise to Candleford 	Dorcas Lane 	TV series (40 episodes: 2008–2011)
2009 	The Alan Titchmarsh Show 	 	TV series (1 episode: "9 March 2009")
2013 	Agatha Christie's Marple 	Mrs. Cresswell 	TV series (1 episode: "Greenshaw's Folly")
2014 	Remember Me 	Jan Ward 	TV series (3 episodes)
2016 	Midsomer Murders 	Penny Henderson 	TV series (1 episode: "Saints and Sinners")