Rachael Stirling: I wish I'd asked my mother about starring in a lesbian drama - Telegraph Celebrity news Rachael Stirling: I wish I'd asked my mother about starring in a lesbian drama Rachael Stirling, daughter of Dame Diana Rigg, said she was offered little "after-care" following the risqué role in Tipping The Velvet which turned her into tabloid fodder. Rachael Stirling and Keeley Hawes in Tipping The Velvet, which caused a tabloid storm Photo: BBC By Anita Singh, Showbusiness Editor 7:00AM BST 27 Aug 2012 When Rachael Stirling was offered a role in lesbian drama series Tipping The Velvet, she didn’t think to consult her mother first. Had she known the drama’s risqué scenes would cause a tabloid storm and leave her struggling to be taken seriously as an actress, she would have done things differently. Stirling’s mother is Dame Diana Rigg, who knows a thing or two about life as a reluctant sex symbol after playing Emma Peel in The Avengers. “The tabloids had a field day with Tipping The Velvet, which was great for the viewing figures but not necessarily for the actors involved,” Stirling said.

“It was a brilliant project and I don’t regret it, but there wasn’t a lot of aftercare and the long-term effects weren’t considered. Nobody sat down and said that you might find it hard to be taken seriously as an actor afterwards. “I should have asked my ma’s advice, but I was such a proud little bunny in those days.” Related Articles Stripping for the cameras 'was so freeing' 25 Aug 2012 Stirling co-starred with Keeley Hawes in Tipping The Velvet, a story of lesbian love in Victorian England based on the novel by Sarah Waters. It was broadcast by the BBC in 2002 and adapted by Andrew Davies, the screenwriter, who famously dubbed it “Pride and Prejudice with dirty bits”. Stirling was a little-known actress when she got the part. She told a Sunday newspaper: “I was raised to please people in authority and I’d also come from a sheltered boarding school, so I was very naive and young for my years.

“So when the producer of Tipping The Velvet said, ‘We chose you because we knew you’d swing naked from the nearest chandelier’, I should have realised he wasn’t offering me the role because I was deeply important and talented. “Now I’ve done the graft and I’ve worked with great directors and actors, I feel a lot more prepared to handle the limelight and make the right choices in my career because God knows that I’ve made some dodgy ones.” Nearly 40 years earlier, Stirling’s mother was faced with something similar when she played Emma Peel, the high-kicking spy in a leather catsuit. Dame Diana told one interviewer: “There is always one thing that turns you into an icon, an iconic image, in my case a catsuit. But the icon 40 years later doesn't really want to know because it's not relevant to me. “I was grateful because it catapulted me into stage stardom. It was good. I'm not ashamed of it. But I only did it for two years. When it came out, I was suddenly famous. It was startling.

From being anonymous, I was mobbed.” Stirling, 35, concentrated on theatre after Tipping The Velvet and has garnered two Olivier Award nominations. Her next screen role is a 1950s-set ITV drama, The Bletchley Circle, in which she plays a former codebreaker who reunites with former colleagues to solve a series of murders. She and Dame Diana, 74, recently worked together for the first time. They will appear in a forthcoming episode of Doctor Who, called The Crimson Horror. Last year, Stirling left acting temporarily and took a job as a barmaid. She worked in a pub after splitting from her fiance, Oliver Chris, a fellow actor. “I went and pulled pints in a pub for five months. I cleared vomit off the stairs and got leered at by all sorts of unsuitable men. But the camaraderie was fantastic and time out from everything was exactly what I needed,” she said. Of the broken engagement, she said: “I loved him and I wanted to make him happy but, actually, if every time somebody asks you about your wedding plans you burst into tears, then you are probably not doing OK.

And every bone in my body and every instinct was telling me that this marriage wasn’t right.” Rachael Stirling - Biography - IMDb Rachael Stirling Biography Showing all 26 items Jump to: Overview (3) | Mini Bio (1) | Spouse (1) | Trade Mark (1) | Trivia (17) | Personal Quotes (3) Overview (3) 5' 9" (1.75 m) Mini Bio (1) Rachael Stirling was born on May 30, 1977 in London, England as Rachael Atlanta Stirling. She is known for her work on Snow White and the Huntsman (2012), Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (2011) and The Young Victoria (2009). She has been married to Guy Garvey since June 3, 2016. Spouse (1) She can speak Russian and is highly skilled at horse-riding and jumping. Has a degree in History of Art from Edinburgh University. Formerly lived with her DJ boyfriend in north London. 1999: Named as one of European films 'Shooting Stars' by European Film Promotion.

Is a former member of the UK's National Youth Theatre, for whom she played Desdemona opposite Chiwetel Ejiofor 's Othello. She attended Wycombe Abbey in Buckinghamshire, where she spent most of her time at the theatre. Five people she would love to have to dinner are Bette Davis , Tallulah Bankhead , Mae West , Sarah Siddons and Joan Crawford . Her favourite song is Bob Dylan 's 'Lay Lady Lay' because it reminds her of times with her mother. Her father's first marriage to Charmian Scott produced two sons, William (Willy) a writer and Ludovic (Ludo) a designer, her half-brothers with whom she is very close. May 2005: in a stage production of Theatre Of Blood at the Lyttleton Theatre, London, she played the role of 'Miranda Lionheart'. This character (originally named Edwina) was played in the film by her mother, Diana Rigg .

Of the Baronets Stirling-Maxwell, her father is Laird of the Keir Estate in Perth and Kinross, Scotland, by whom she descends from Charles II Stuart, King of England and Scotland, and also from a first cousin of his, the grandmother of George I, King of Great-Britain. She is also a distant relative of Sir Winston Churchill and Rupert Everett . Her father, Archibald Stirling is the nephew of Colonel Sir David Stirling, founder of the Special Air Service (SAS). Was engaged to Oliver Chris until 2012. They were in a relationship from 2007. Beginning her run as "Conchita' in Nilo Cruz 's award-winning play, "Anna in the Tropics", at Hampstead Theatre, London. [November 2004] Appearing in the theatre version of "Theatre of Blood" at the National Theatre, London, playing the role that her mother, Diana Rigg , played in the film, Theatre of Blood (1973). [May 2005] Married her boyfriend, Guy Garvey in a secret ceremony in Manchester, England on 3 June 2016.

Personal Quotes (3) I keep thinking, 'when will it all blow up? When will the luck or whatever it is run out?' Then there is the fear that there is someone behind me asking, 'Who does she think she is?' So I'm waiting you might say. Waiting for the jinx and trying not to feel too lucky. I am a clever girl, so if there was something else I could do, I would. "It was horrendous after I appeared in Tipping the Velvet (2002) - I didn't work for eight months because I kept being sent scripts, the details of which I'll spare you". See also Diana Rigg and daughter Rachael Stirling to star in Doctor Who - BBC News BBC News Diana Rigg and daughter Rachael Stirling to star in Doctor Who 2 July 2012 Close share panel Image caption Diana Rigg appeared in more than 50 episodes of The Avengers from 1965-68 Mother and daughter Dame Diana Rigg and Rachael Stirling are to star side by side in a Doctor Who adventure to be broadcast next year. It is the first time the pair have worked together on screen.

The actresses will play "a mother and daughter with a dark secret" alongside Matt Smith, as the Doctor, and new companion Jenna-Louise Coleman. Filming began this week at Roath Lock Studios in Cardiff. Dame Diana Rigg, who played Emma Peel in The Avengers in the 1960s, will play "a Yorkshire local". 'Madness' She said: "The first time Rachie and I will be working together is on an episode of Doctor Who specially written for us by Mark Gatiss. How lucky is that?" Image caption Rachael Stirling as Nan Astley in Tipping the Velvet (2002) Rachael Stirling said she was "looking forward to the madness of Doctor Who enormously". "Mark Gatiss has written a gift of a script and an on-screen relationship between Ma and I that is truly delicious. "We have never before worked together because the offers have not been tempting, but when such a funny and original script comes through you know the time has come." Stirling's TV work includes Women In Love and Tipping the Velvet.

Doctor Who's executive producer Steven Moffat said: "Dame Diana Rigg, Rachael Stirling and a Mark Gatiss script - a combination of talents you could only get in Doctor Who! Frankly, I'm terrified already!" 2013 will be the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in November 1963. Rachael Stirling: ¿Being Diana Rigg¿s daughter does have its disadvantages¿ | Daily Mail Online comments The actress tells us why she’s had to work doubly hard to prove herself... Rachael says she 'didn’t grow up or learn how to fully serve myself until I got my head down in the theatre. But now I’ve done the graft’ Rachael has made her way to our photo shoot, on a wet Wednesday in London’s Chalk Farm, wearing green wellies and an oilskin jacket teamed with a lace and chiffon dress. The outfit seems to sum her up perfectly. On the one hand, she’s a willowy, swan-necked belle with a cut-glass accent. On the other, she’s a proper mucker – funny, open, disarmingly honest, with a terrific line in outrageous swearing.

Celia Johnson (circa Brief Encounter) meets builder’s mate. She’s never been tempted to modify her vocab or diction to fit in with current fashions. So, you say ‘great’, she says ‘divine’. You say, ‘Mum and Dad’, she says, ‘Ma and Pa’. Her Ma, in case you haven’t guessed from those coat-hanger cheekbones, is Dame Diana Rigg, who karate-kicked her way into 1960s legend as the leather-clad Avengers star Emma Peel. Her Pa is Archie Stirling, millionaire farmer and businessman and also Laird of the Scottish Keir estate. She’s descended from acting royalty on one side and can track her ancestry to King Charles II on the other. ‘I realise I’ve come from quite a spoilt and privileged background,’ she says. Still, she’s made it as an actress entirely on her own terms. Now aged 35, she started as a teenager at the National Youth Theatre, branching out later into TV and film. Her roles have included the lesbian Nan Astley in controversial TV drama Tipping the Velvet and Ursula Brangwen in the BBC’s adaptation of Women in Love.

She’s recently had two Olivier nominations for her roles on stage in The Priory and An Ideal Husband. Last year, however, she experienced a personal and professional crisis after ending her engagement with Oliver Chris (the actor who’s been playing Stanley Stubbers alongside James Corden in the stage sensation One Man, Two Guvnors). As a result, she took five months away from the spotlight. She’s back now, better than ever, and will be appearing with her mother in an episode of Doctor Who next year. Before that, she stars with Anna Maxwell Martin, Julie Graham and Sophie Rundle in the three-part ITV drama The Bletchley Circle. Set in the 1950s, it’s the story of four female code-breakers forced to return to their humdrum domestic lives at the end of the war. In 1951, several years after the hostilities have ended, they reunite to solve a series of murders.

Here Rachael talks about the role, growing up with a famous mum and why life is suddenly looking so much rosier… I’m aware how annoying it is when the kids of actors think it’s a rite of passage to go into the profession’ I was only vaguely aware when I was little that Ma was famous. I can remember people pointing at her in Marks & Spencer. But she kept work and home very separate. I was never taken on film sets as a child. When I did my first film, Still Crazy, everyone assumed I must know what they meant, for example, by ‘Hit your mark’. But I didn’t have a clue that it meant walking to the spot on the floor that was marked by coloured tape and not straying from it. The first time I was told I’d ‘wrapped’ [movie jargon for finished for the day], I sat in my caravan until they came to lock up. It was pretty tragic. The 50s was the last decade to embrace ‘gels’ with posh accents like mine, so I was right at home playing Millie in The Bletchley Circle. She’s upper-class bohemian, bombastic, demonstrative.

I immediately thought, ‘I can play her!’ Usually, I’m good at talking myself out of parts and others into them – but this time I knew the part should be mine. Rachael as Millie in upcoming series The Bletchley Circle It’s rare to be on a set that’s so female-orientated. The four of us had a brilliant time every day, howling with laughter but also working our backsides off. We loved the first assistant director and bought him a farewell bottle of champagne. He said, ‘It’s been a learning curve, girls. I know more about the female anatomy now than I ever thought I would – and I was present at both my daughters’ births!’ My instinct is to surround myself with the company of wise, witty, wonderful women, and I have a great bank of female friends of all ages. I love men too. Bring them on. But in terms of shared experience and the common language of life, I’ll hang out with women every time. One of my co-stars, Julie Graham, and I are old mates. We shared a dressing room years ago during my first play at the Donmar Warehouse. She took me under her wing.

She’d say, in her best Scottish Prime-of-Miss-Jean-Brodie accent, ‘Rachael! Why are you wearing such horrible grey underwear?! A juvenile lead can NOT be wearing underwear like that!’ Then we’d go shopping. The tabloids had a field day with Tipping the Velvet, which was great for the viewing figures but not necessarily for the actors involved. It was a brilliant project and I don’t regret it, but there wasn’t a lot of aftercare and the long-term effects weren’t considered. Nobody sat down and said that you might find it hard to be taken seriously as an actor afterwards. I should have asked my ma’s advice, but I was such a proud little bunny in those days. I was raised to please people in authority and I’d also come from a sheltered boarding school, so I was very naive and young for my years. Even now, at 35, I think there are youngsters in their 20s who are much more streetwise than me. So when the producer of Tipping the Velvet said, ‘We chose you because we knew you’d swing naked from the nearest chandelier,’ I should have realised he wasn’t offering me the role because I was deeply and importantly talented.

I didn’t grow up or learn how to fully serve myself until I got my head down in the theatre. But now I’ve done the graft and I’ve worked with great directors and actors, I feel a lot more prepared to handle the limelight and make the right choices in my career because God knows that I’ve made some dodgy ones. In May last year I broke off my engagement with Ol [Oliver Chris]. I loved him and I wanted to make him happy but, actually, if every time somebody asks you about your wedding plans you burst into tears, then you are probably not doing OK. And every bone in my body and every instinct was telling me that this marriage wasn’t right. People told me I’d been brave to end it. But I thought, ‘What a total b**** I am!’; I did not like myself at all. But if I’d married I’d have made everybody’s life a million times worse. 'Following my ma [The Avengers star Diana Rigg, left] into acting makes me a boring, walking cliché.

It’s why I’ve worked so hard to prove myself,' says Rachael Sometimes you just have to surf the ‘crapola’ of life and I had a funny old year of doing just that. The break-up coincided with a weird time in my career. During 2010 and 2011, I’d been nominated for two Oliviers, but nothing being offered afterwards made my juices flow. I thought, ‘I’m too old and too talented to be doing mediocre stuff.’ But then I went and pulled pints in a pub for five months. I cleared vomit off the stairs and got leered at by all sorts of unsuitable men. But the camaraderie was fantastic and time out from everything was exactly what I needed. I was lured back to work by the small but brilliant role of Anna in the movie Snow White and the Huntsman [starring Charlize Theron and Kristen Stewart]. And everything has been going well since then. It’s important to give something back because acting is a life of privilege. So during that year I also started working on Saturdays at the Butterfly School near where I live in West London. It’s for children who are struggling with literacy. They are amazing and challenging.

I’ve learnt as much from them as they ever learnt from me. A year after I broke up with Ol, I now feel I’ve finally got my wiggle back. I’m footloose and fancy free and having some very nice flirtations, thank you. That’s not to say I couldn’t fall in love again, and I do definitely want children. My ma always says that women are lionesses, so when the right person comes along I’ll know he’s the one I should have my cubs with. I think there’s time. Ma was 39 when she had me so I’ve never thought it was bad to have children later. My pa is a brilliant, charming man. We go out and play together and laugh a lot. He has a twinkle in his eye. I always seem to choose guys who are younger than me, so I don’t think I have a father fixation. But I do like similarly masculine alpha males, probably because I’m a bit feisty myself and I like a man who makes me feel like a woman. Despite their divorce, my parents are now great friends. Ma always said to me, ‘I never want you to have to choose between us.’ And I never did.

Last Christmas was spent in Scotland with my ma [she is still single], my pa, wife number three, my seven-year-old half-brother from that marriage and one of my two half-brothers from Pa’s first marriage. We’re a happy, eccentric, modern family, although when there are exes and booze involved, the sparks always fly. Rachael with her mum Diana in February When I was in the movie The Young Victoria three years ago, I’d given up smoking which accounts for the bloat. I was the slightly porky maid-in-waiting, not helped by that terrible Victorian ‘spaniel’s ears’ hair do. I’d be standing grumpily behind Emily Blunt, thinking, ‘Why haven’t I got her role?!’ I took up ballet immediately afterwards and I’m pretty good at it. I can pirouette, believe me. My body shape has changed, too, especially since I started combining it with boxing a year ago. I go to a great little gym around the corner and parry for an hour and a half at a time with the owner’s beautiful son. I’m leaner, stronger, full of energy and I’m no longer a hostage to my diet.

Ewan McGregor said our sex scene in the recent movie Salmon Fishing in the Yemen was his favourite ever. I was playing his dour, sexless Scots wife, Mary. We were wearing our sensible pyjamas and at the moment of orgasm he had to grunt, ‘Ock, Mary, thank you. Happy anniversary.’ We couldn’t stop laughing. The landscape of Scotland is in my veins, and even though I was born in London and live there now, a part of me is pure purple thistle. My class and accent have probably lost me as many roles as they’ve got me. At one time all actors had posh accents, but now there’s enough from every class to fill the appropriate roles. So the minute I open my mouth I’m cast as Millie. I’ll never be the go-to actress for, say, Ken Loach or Mike Leigh. But I’d like to be. Following my ma into acting makes me a boring, walking cliché. I’m aware how annoying it must be for others when the children of actors – some of whom can’t act at all – think it’s a rite of passage to go into the profession. It’s why I’ve worked so hard to prove myself.

Ma and I had never worked together. Then my mate Mark Gatiss, who writes Doctor Who, asked if we would consider appearing in an episode together. I said, ‘Duh!! Yuh!!! I’ll ask my ma.’ But I knew that she’d say yes. We’ve been offered many joint projects but they were always predictable and clichéd. Our roles in Doctor Who (The Crimson Horror), however, are so celebratory, camp and tongue-in-cheek. It takes the p*** out of us wonderfully. Driving back to London from the set in Cardiff, we stopped at a petrol station in the pouring rain. She looked at me and said, ‘Rachael, I’m so proud of you. This has been an utter joy.’ I feel the same about her, of course. She’s 74 and still totally rocking it. We both got a bit teary. Especially me. This wasn’t just another actor paying me a compliment. She’s my ma. Can you imagine what that meant to me? The Bletchley Circle will be on ITV1 next month Stirling choices READING The Magus by John Fowles. It’s a way of prolonging the holiday I just had in Crete.

I go back to the same little fishing village every year with one of my best friends, the actress Daisy Haggard. We play cards, eat Greek yoghurt and honey, dance around like idiots to music that we love and go naked moonlight swimming off the little pier just below our flat. We never tell anyone exactly where it is. LISTENING TO Beth Jeans Houghton & the Hooves of Destiny album Yours Truly, Cellophane Nose. It’s basically girl rock and I love it. STYLE ICON Katharine Hepburn is the epitome of grace, style and wit. WATCHING ON TV I’m absolutely crazy about all kinds of music and I love all those documentaries about musicians. Recently I loved the BBC’s programmes on both Paul Simon and David Bowie. BEAUTY PRODUCT My Simple face wash. STUCK IN A LIFT WITH At the moment Matt Smith, because I’ve just finished filming Doctor Who with him and thought he was divine. FAVOURITE CITY Can I say London? I truly believe it’s the greatest city on earth. RECENTLY SPLURGED ON A picture by Rudi Patterson, an artist who lives near me in W10.

He’s from the Caribbean and he creates these wonderful, bright, slightly naive paintings. It cost me under £300, which was a bargain, but then I’m not really a splurger. Right now, I have clothes that are too big for me, but instead of buying new ones, I’ll take them to this wonderful Polish seamstress that I’ve found. FAVOURITE DESIGNER Maria Grachvogel who has often come to my rescue if I have a red carpet do and nothing to wear. I adore everything that she does. Styling: David Hawkins at Frank Agency. Make-up: Amanda Grossman at Frank Agency. Hair: Jennie Roberts at Naked Artists. Blazer, Alexander Wang, from Feathers. Trousers, Helmut Lang, from Feathers. Bra, Freya. Gloves, Dents, from Harrods. Boots, Blink The Rachael Stirling Picture Pages Tipping the Velvet Background: British actress Rachael Stirling, the daughter of actress Diana Rigg, is celebrated for her performance as Nan Astley in “Tipping the Velvet” (BBC, 2002), in which she was handed a Dallas OUT TAKES Award.

She recalled, “It was horrendous after I appeared in 'Tipping the Velvet.’ I didn't work for eight months because I kept being sent scripts, the details of which I'll spare you.” Stirling is also known for playing Young Rebeccah in “In the Beginning” (2000), Griselda Clement in “Marple: The Murder at the Vicarage” (2004) and Veronica Burton in “Boy Meets Girl” (2009). On the wide screen, Stirling has acted in a number of films since her debut in 1998's “Still Crazy.” Her film credits include “Maybe Baby” (2000), “The Triumph of Love” (2001), “Freeze Frame” (2004), “Dangerous Parking” (2007), “The Young Victoria” (2009) and “Centurion” (2010). Stirling kicked off her career on stage with the role of Desdemona in “Othello” (1996).

She has since appeared in the stage productions “A Woman of No Importance,” John Osborne's “Look Back in Anger,” “Theater of Blood” and “Anna in the Tropics.” Stirling lived with her DJ boyfriend, John Lycett-Green, until September 2003. They are no longer together. She mentions Bob Dylan's “Lay Lady Lay” as her favorite song because it reminds her of her mother. Diana Rigg's Child Childhood and Family: “It's such a boring cliché to be the daughter of an actress. I'm a living, walking, breathing, smoking cliché!” Rachael Stirling The only child of actress Diana Rigg and Scottish millionaire businessman Archibald Stirling, Rachael Atalanta Stirling was born on May 30, 1977, in London, England. Her parents divorced in 1990. The marriage broke up when her father had an affair with actress Joely Richardson. Her father is the nephew of Colonel Sir David Stirling, the founder of the Special Air Service (SAS). She is the descendant of Charles II Stuart, King of England and Scotland, and a distant relative of Sir Winston Churchill and Rupert Everett.

Rachael spent her childhood in London and Scotland. She attended Wycombe Abbey School in Buckinghamshire, where she spent time in theater, and the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, from which she earned a BA in art history. Rachael is very close to her half brothers William, a writer, and Ludovic, a designer, from her father's marriage to his first wife Charmian Montagu Douglas Scott. Rachael can speak Russian and is an accomplished equestrian. Boy Meets Girl Career: Rachael Stirling began her stage career with the U.K.'s National Youth Theatre in the mid 1990s. Her first major role arrived when she was cast as Desdemona in a revival of “Othello” (1996), which starred Chiwetel Ejiofor. She then portrayed Olive in a female version of “The Odd Couple” (1997) and Kate in “Dancing at Lughnasa” (1998). Stirling made her feature acting debut alongside Stephen Rea, Billy Connolly, Timothy Spall and Jimmy Nail in the British movie “Still Crazy” (1998).

Directed by Brian Gibson, the film was nominated for Golden Globes for Best Motion Picture - Comedy/Musical and Best Original Song - Motion Picture. On her first film role, she commented, “I got this film 'Still Crazy.' I was so green that I didn't even know what they meant when they said 'You're wrapped.' I went back to my caravan. They found me when they were going round to lock up.” In the new millennium, Stirling played the supporting role of Joanna in “Maybe Baby” (2000), a comedy written and directed by Ben Elton based on his novel “Inconceivable.” She then worked with Jonny Lee Miller, Brian Cox, Keeley Hawes and Paul Higgins in the thriller “Complicity” (2000), an adaptation of Iain Banks' novel of the same name. She made her American television debut with the NBC adventure “In the Beginning” (2000), opposite Alan Bates, Jacqueline Bisset, Martin Landau, David Warner and her mother, Diana Rigg. In the film, she played young Rebeccah. Also in 2000, she portrayed Frankie in “Helpless” at Donmar Warehouse in London.

Stirling was next cast as Becky in the comedy “Redemption Road” (2001), starring Tony Bluto and Stephen Marcus, co-starred with Ioan Gruffudd, Natasha Little, Nick Moran, Imelda Staunton and Tom Wilkinson in the U.K. independent murder mystery “Another Life” (2001), written and directed by Peter Goodhew, and played Corine in the big screen adaptation of Marivaux's play “The Triumph of Love” (2001), opposite Mira Sorvino and Ben Kingsley. Still that year, she was cast as Lulu in a modern TV movie adaptation of Shakespeare's “Othello.” The production was directed by Geoffrey Sax and scripted by Andrew Davies. In 2002, Stirling became famous for her portrayal of Nancy Astley in a BBC three part television drama series titled “Tipping the Velvet,” which was adapted from the bestselling novel by Sarah Waters. The show received several awards and nominations, including a Television and Radio Industries Club (TRIC) award for TV Drama Program, a BAFTA nomination for Best Original Television Music and a GLAAD Media nomination for Outstanding Television Movie or Mini-Series.

For her good acting, the actress won the Best Actress Award at the 2003 Dallas OUT TAKES. Costars of the show included Keeley Hawes, Anna Chancellor and Jodhi May. The same year, she also costarred with John Hurt in the television thriller “Bait,” for director Nicholas Renton and writer Daniel Boyle. From 2003 to 2004, Stirling was seen in an episode of “Agatha Christie: Poirot” called “Five Little Pigs,” the psychological thriller “Freeze Frame,” which was written and directed by John Simpson and starred comedian Lee Evans, and the made for television film “Marple: The Murder at the Vicarage,” in which she memorably played Griselda Clement. In ITV's film “The Final Quest,” she portrayed Young Annabelle. In addition, Stirling performed in various stage productions. She played Hester Worsley in Oscar Wilde's “A Woman of No Importance” (Theatre Royal Haymarket, 2003) and Conchita in “Anna in the Tropics” (2004, Hampstead Theatre).

She went on to play Miranda Lionheart in a stage adaptation of “Theater of Blood” (National Theatre, 2005), Zenocrate in “Tambulaine” (Bristol Old Vic Theatre and Barbican Theatre, 2005) and Helena in John Osborne's “Look Back In Anger” (Theatre Royal, 2006). Stirling returned to television in 2005 when she landed the role of Marie Rambert in the based on balled TV film “Riot at the Rite,” opposite Adam Garcia, Alex Jennings and Aidan McArdle. The following year, she appeared as Guilean Hade in an American TV series pilot titled “Beyond,” starred as Julia Jugg in “The Haunted Airman,” a BBC TV film adapted from the 1948 psychological novel “The Haunting of Toby Jugg” by Dennis Wheatley, and guest starred as Nina Bailey in the BBC television series “Hotel Babylon.” 2006 also saw her play Martha in “The Truth,” a comedy directed and co-written by George Milton that starred William Beck, Amelia Bullmore, David Cann, Elaine Cassidy, Stephen Lord and Elizabeth McGovern.

The talented thespian next teamed up with Peter Howitt, Saffron Burrows, Sean Pertwee, Alice Evans and Tom Conti for the 2007 drama “Dangerous Parking,” adapted from Stuart Browne's novel of the same name. The film was scripted and directed by Peter Hewitt, who won the Best Director Award at the 2007 Tokyo International Film Festival for his effort. Meanwhile on stage, she performed in Shakespeare's “The Taming of the Shrew” (as Kate) and Chekhov's “The Cherry Orchard” (as Yelena, both produced at Wilton's Music Hall in London). After playing Zoe Kenneth in an episode of ITV's detective series “Lewis,” called “Life Born of Fire,” Stirling portrayed Eve Cornell on a “Minder” episode titled “Thank Your Lucky Stars” (2009). She then starred as Veronica Burton, opposite Martin Freeman as Danny Reed, in the British miniseries “Boy Meets Girl,” which ran for most of May 2009. On the big screen, she was seen as the Duchess of Sutherland on “The Young Victoria” (2009).

The film was directed by Jean-Marc Vallée, written by Julian Fellowes and co-produced by Martin Scorsese. It starred Emily Blunt as Queen Victoria and Rupert Friend as Prince Albert. At the 2010 Academy Awards ceremony, “The Young Victoria” was nominated for Best Achievement in Art Direction, Best Achievement in Makeup and Best Achievement in Costume Design and won the latter category. Blunt received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama for her work. Recently, in 2010, Stirling portrayed Drusilla in the British action movie “Centurion,” which was written and directed by Neil Marshall. She also served as a makeup artist for the 15 minute short film “Mosa,” directed and co-penned by Ana Moreno. The film was screened at the 24th BFI London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival on March 21, 2010.

Awards: Diana Rigg’s girl, Rachael Stirling, is getting married - Telegraph Celebrity news Diana Rigg’s girl, Rachael Stirling, is getting married Rachael Stirling, the actress daughter of Dame Diana Rigg and Archie Stirling, is to marry fellow actor Oliver Chris. Rachael Stirling is planning to wed this year Photo: Andrew Crowley By Tim Walker 6:28AM GMT 23 Feb 2011 Two years after I disclosed that Rachael Stirling, Dame Diana Rigg's daughter by her marriage to Archie Stirling, was courting fellow actor Oliver Chris, the couple tell me that they are engaged. It was claimed that Rachael, 33, broke up with her previous boyfriend, John Lycett Green, the grandson of Sir John Betjeman, because he couldn’t cope with her lesbian scenes in the drama Tipping the Velvet. Clearly Chris, 32, is made of stronger stuff. “We’re going to be a Wills and Kate tribute act,” he joshed at the Olivier Awards nominees’ lunch. He expected the marriage to be in September.

Tonybee can’t resist the charms of Eton Polly Toynbee may rail in The Guardian that David Cameron’s big society is a “busted flush,” but she doesn’t seem to be busted herself. With her husband, David Walker, who picked up a £30,000 pay off when he was sacked as the communications boss of the Audit Commission, she has moved into a £1.5 million home in an upmarket road in north London which includes the word "Eton" in its name. Toynbee, who once declined to reveal her salary to me after calling for everybody else’s to be made available on the internet, already has a planning application in for a conservatory. Related Articles 28 Sep 2012 Ron Moody: Pick a part or two Still, at 87, indelibly associated with the part of Fagin in the musical Oliver!, Ron Moody was on fine, irrascible form at The Oldie literary lunch at Simpson’s-in-the-Strand where he was plugging his memoirs, A Still Untitled (Not Quite) Autobiography.

“I love acting and I don’t want to give it up, but I think it has given me up,” he said, glumly. Recent roles have included an ancient Scottish tramp in Casualty, but this, he felt, was typical typecasting for an octogenarian. “When you get older, you get invisible. People don’t see you. I would love, for instance, to have played J M Barrie in the film Finding Neverland, but they cast Johnny Depp, who played him as a handsome young man. “The fact is Barrie was a weedy little Scottish fellow with a big moustache, but by casting Depp it made him into a romantic lead. Of course it is ridiculous”. Rachael Stirling Rachael Atlanta Stirling (born 30 May 1977) is an English stage, film and television actress best known for her performance as Nancy Astley in the BBC drama Tipping the Velvet. She is the daughter of actress Dame Diana Rigg and Archie Stirling. Rachael Stirling was born to Dame Diana Rigg and Archie Stirling on 30 May 1977.

As the daughter of Archie Stirling, she has a long line of ancestry from the Scottish parish of Lecropt, near her namesake city of Stirling. She attended Wycombe Abbey School and Edinburgh University, where she gained a BA in the History of Art. Stirling can also speak Russian and is highly skilled at horse-riding and jumping Stirling made her first major appearance on stage in 1996 as Desdemona in the National Youth Theatre revival of Othello at the Arts Theatre opposite Chiwetel Ejiofor in the title role. A year later, again at the Arts Theatre with the NYT, she played Olive in the female version of The Odd Couple; while in 1998, portraying Kate in Dancing at Lughnasa for NYT at the Arts, she gave what The Stage reviewer described as "a performance of exceptional promise and authority." Her first screen appearance was in the 1998 British comedy film Still Crazy (starring Stephen Rea, Billy Connolly, Timothy Spall and Jimmy Nail).

Other film projects have included Maybe Baby, Complicity (with her Tipping the Velvet co-star Keeley Hawes), Another Life (with Vanity Fair actress Natasha Little), The Triumph of Love (starring Mira Sorvino), and Redemption Road. Her first TV break was in 2000 when she played the young Rebeccah in the American made-for-television movie In the Beginning, which charted God's creation of the universe and mankind, opposite Jacqueline Bisset and Art Malik. She continues to be active in the theatre, covering a diversity of roles in plays such as Dusty Hughes' Helpless (Donmar Warehouse, 2000); A Woman of No Importance (Theatre Royal Haymarket, 2003); Anna in the Tropics (Hampstead Theatre, 2004); Tamburlaine (Bristol Old Vic and Barbican, 2005); and she followed in her mother's footsteps, bringing an alluring erotic charge to her performance as Miranda Lionheart in the National Theatre stage version of Theatre of Blood (2005).

In 2006, for the Peter Hall Company at the Bath Theatre Royal, she played Helena in Peter Gill's revival of Look Back in Anger; while in 2007 at Wilton's Music Hall in London, she starred as Yelena in David Mamet's version of Uncle Vanya [1], and as a fiercely intelligent Katherine in The Taming of the Shrew Rachael Stirling

Question: Who is the mother of actress Rachel Stirling ?
Answer: DAME DIANA RIGG