Amanda Ballard

"*I want to give a little ring on the tenor bell, it's not siding right.*"
―Amanda Ballard
**Amanda Ballard** is a character in the first season of the *Agatha Raisin* television adaptation, based on **Mary Bolton** from the short story *Agatha Raisin: Hell's Bells*.

She was a rich newcomer to Carsely who started up the church bell ringing group as a passion project. However, she was much the spendthrift and had amassed a great deal of debt.

She was portrayed by Sally Bretton.

## Biography

### Early life

Amanda grew up in Bristol and attended an all-girls' school. Her father had set up philanthropic schools in Africa for orphans who had lost their parents during the civil war, the brightest of whom were brought back to England to study. One such child was Jez Bloxby. During her childhood, her parents split up as a result of unfaithfulness.

When she was 21-years-old, her father hanged himself when his company went bust. Consequently, Amanda quickly went from being very affluent to very poor. Within three months of her father's death, she married one of his friends, John Marlowe. They had a strained marriage due to Amanda's constant spending of his money and the two later divorced after John began an affair with his receptionist. (TV: *Hell's Bells*)

### Season 1

Following the breakdown of her marriage, Amanda came to Carsely in the hopes of creating a new life for herself. She chose the quaint Cotswold village because of her connection with the village's vicar, Jez Bloxby. She initially approached him with the idea of selling the land around the vicarage to raise money to help the church. However, she later blackmailed Jez into letting her pocket a quarter of the money from the sale by threatening to reveal his uncomfortable family history to his wife, Sarah Bloxby.

She moved into a large farmhouse and also allowed her old school friend Steph to live on the grounds with her, in exchange for Steph helping Amanda take care of her horses and the stables on the property.

Amanda made herself out to be recently widowed when in reality she was divorced, with her ex-husband still very much alive and paying for her expensive lifestyle. With the farmhouse, her horses and her extravagant spending, Amanda had racked up a large debt and consequently she had multiple credit cards in addition to both the monthly payments from her ex-husband and the money she took from the church.

Upon moving to Carsely she immersed herself in village life, raising money to resurrect the bell-fry and then gathering together a group of villagers to practice ringing the bells ahead of a visit from the bishop. As a result of her involvement with the church she spent lots of time with Jez, much to Sarah's annoyance. Unknown to Sarah, however, Amanda already knew Jez before moving to the area through her father's philanthropy. Through the bellringing group, Amanda had also struck up a friendship with Agatha Raisin. (TV: *Hell's Bells*)

## Personality

Amanda appeared to be a generous and caring person. Whilst she could indeed be friendly, she was also manipulative and had a penchant for blackmail in order to get her way. She was a rather religious person, on occasion using her faith to justify judging or feeling superior to others.

According to Steph, Amanda was 'up and down all the time', while her ex-husband described her as a 'princess' who wanted a life of privilege without working for. (TV: *Hell's Bells*)

## Physical appearance

Amanda had shoulder-length blonde hair. Sarah Bloxby described her as having 'available eyes'. (TV: *Hell's Bells*)

## Trivia

* Her favourite hymn was All People That on Earth Do Dwell. She had fond memories of hearing the tune play over the fields when she was a child.
* Her horses were called Samson and Snip.
* She was murdered July 14, 2016.
* Despite being referred to in dialogue as *Amanda Ballard*, the character is listed as *Amanda Barton* in the episode credits.
* Amanda is based on the character of Mary Bolton from the short story *Agatha Raisin: Hell's Bells*.
	+ Her name was likely changed to avoid confusion with Mary Fortune, a book character whose role was largely expanded upon for the television adaptation.