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Amanda Root

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For the American social reformer, see Amanda Lane Root.

Amanda Root
Born1963 (age 60–61)
Chelmsford, Essex, England
OccupationActor
Years active1983 – present

Amanda Root (born 1963) is an English stage and screen actress and a former voice actress for children's programmes.

Root is known for her starring role in the 1995 BBC film adaptation of Jane Austen's Persuasion, her role in the British TV comedy All About Me, as Miranda, alongside Richard Lumsden in 2004, and for voicing Sophie in The BFG.

She trained for the stage at Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art.

Life and career

Root was born in Chelmsford, Essex. She began her career at the Leeds Playhouse in 1983 when she played Essie in Bernard Shaw's The Devil's Disciple.

She was a remarkably complete actress even in her early twenties, when physically she looked little more than a child. With her dark soulful eyes she could command a stage, and the Royal Shakespeare Company saw her talent very early on.[1]

She worked regularly with the RSC in Stratford-upon-Avon and London from 1983 to 1991, including playing the role of Juliet to Daniel Day-Lewis's Romeo; a very young Lady Macbeth; Cressida to Ralph Fiennes's Troilus, and Rosaline to his Berowne.[1]

In 1995, she starred as Anne Elliot in Persuasion, co-starring Ciarán Hinds and John Woodvine. The film (made for TV, then released in cinemas) was based on the novel by Jane Austen and was her first leading role in a film.[2]

She won rave reviews (and was nominated for a Tony Award) in October 2008 for her portrayal of the control freak Sarah in The Old Vic's revival of Alan Ayckbourn's interlinked trilogy The Norman Conquests, directed in the round by Matthew Warchus.[3]

Audio

She was the voice of Sophie in the animated film of Roald Dahl's The BFG (1989).

She portrayed Joan la Pucelle in the Arkangel Shakespeare's 2000 production of Henry VI, Part 1.

In 2006, Root undertook the task of recording an unabridged audiobook of Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre. Published by Naxos it has a running time of 20 hours 30 minutes, spread across 17 audio CDs: ISBN 978-962-634-357-9. She had previously recorded an abridged 3-hour reading of Jane Austen's Persuasion, published by Hodder & Stoughton Audiobooks in July 2004: ISBN 1-84456-035-X.

In November 2007 for BBC Radio 4 she played in the Woman's Hour Drama serial adaptation of F. Tennyson Jesse's novel A Pin to See the Peep Show,[4] and on 2 December 2007 was heard in Arnold Wesker's 75-minute radio play The Rocking Horse, commissioned by the BBC World Service to celebrate its 75th anniversary.[5][6] As part of the BBC Radio 4 Hopes and Desires season, she played Lindsey, an incurable romantic who yearns to meet a modern-day Heathcliff, in Nick Warburton's 30-minute comedy Catching Heathcliff, broadcast at 11 pm on 15 January 2008.[7] She was the voice of Fanny in the 2-cassette 1997 BBC radio dramatisation of Jane Austen's Mansfield Park.

Theatre

Her stage credits include:

Filmography

Year Film Role Notes
1985 Storyboard Polly Swift TV series (1 episode: "Ladies in Charge")
This Lightning Always Strikes Twice Sarah Penwarden TV movie
1989 The BFG Sophie voice
1991 The House of Bernarda Alba Adela
1993 The Man Who Cried Hilda Maxwell TV movie
The Buddha of Suburbia First TV Producer TV mini-series
Casualty Barb Edmonds/Evelyn Winnell/Joyce Paice TV series (3 episodes: 1993–2018)
1994 Hildegard of Bingen Ricardis TV documentary
Love on a Branch Line Miss Mounsey TV series (4 episodes)
Shakespeare: The Animated Tales Kate TV series (1 episode: "The Taming of the Shrew")
1995 Persuasion Anne Elliot
1996 Jane Eyre Miss Temple
Breaking the Code Patricia "Pat" Green TV movie
Deep in the Heart Kate Markham
1997 Harry Enfield and Chums Miss Hetherington TV series (1 episode: "Episode #2.6")
Turning World Evelyn Sharples TV series (3 episodes)
Original Sin Frances Peverell TV series (3 episodes)
Sunnyside Farm Dawn TV series (1 episode: "A Rare Visitor")
Dangerfield Alice Stratton TV series (1 episode: "Guilt")
1998 Mortimer's Law Rachel Mortimer TV series (6 episodes)
Big Cat Alice TV movie
1999 Whatever Happened to Harold Smith? Margaret Robinson
2000 Anna Karenina Dolly TV mini-series
2001 Holby City Abbie Sawyer TV series (1 episode: "Snakes and Ladders")
A Small Summer Party Karen TV movie
2002 Waking the Dead Lorna Gyles TV series (2 episodes)
Daniel Deronda Mrs. Davilow TV mini-series (4 episodes)
The Forsyte Saga Winifred Dartie née Forsyte TV series (10 episodes: 2002–2003)
2003 Midsomer Murders Ruth Scholey TV series (1 episode: "A Talent for Life")
The Forsyte Saga: To Let Winifred Dartie née Forsyte TV mini-series (4 episodes)
Love Again Maeve Brennan TV movie
A Touch of Frost Dolores Delmonte TV series (1 episode: "Another Life")
Little Britain Baby's Mother TV series (1 episode: "Most People in a Mini")
Foyle's War Elizabeth Lewes TV series (1 episode: "Fifty Ships")
2004 Girl Afraid short
London Charlotte Brontë TV movie
Rose and Maloney Marsha Campese TV series (1 episode: "Episode #1.2")
Bloom Helen Chapman short
2005 The Robinsons Maggie Robinson TV series (6 episodes)
Empire Noella TV mini-series
Julian Fellowes Investigates: A Most Mysterious Murder Vera Sidney TV series (1 episode: "The Case of the Croydon Poisonings")
2006 The Afternoon Play Andrea TV series (1 episode: "The Last Will and Testament of Billy Two-Sheds")
The Impressionists Alice Hoschedé TV mini-series (2 episodes)
Brief Encounters June Makenzie TV series (1 episode: "Lost and Found")
Star Trek: New Voyages Federation Ambassador TV series (3 episodes: 2006–2009)
2007 The Robber Bride Tony Fremont TV movie
Miss Marie Lloyd – Queen of The Music Hall Mrs. Chant TV movie
2008 Fiona's Story Julie TV movie
Agatha Christie's Poirot Mrs. Rendell TV movie
2010 Law & Order: UK Patricia Smith TV series (1 episode: "Defence")
Thorne: Sleepyhead Teresa Maxwell TV movie
2011 The Iron Lady Amanda
2012 DCI Banks Mary Rothwell TV series (2 episodes)
2013 Casualty Evelyn Winnell TV series (1 episode: "Punch Drunk Love")
Zou Voice TV series (1 episode: "Zou the Chef")
The Tunnel Doctor Cross TV series (1 episode: "Episode #1.8")
2015 Count Arthur Strong Karen TV series (1 episode: "The Heist")
Death in Paradise Teresa Gower TV series (1 episode: "Episode #4.3")
New Tricks Eleanor TV series (1 episode: "Lottery Curse")
2016 Their Finest Cecy/Mrs Brown
2017 Sherlock Emma Welsborough TV series (1 episode: "The Six Thatchers")
The Black Prince Queen Victoria
2018 The Other Side of the Coin Wife TV movie
Unforgotten Carol Finch TV series (6 episodes)
Patrick Melrose Virginia Watson-Scott TV mini-series (1 episode: "Some Hope")
2019 Silent Witness Olivia Walsh TV series (1 episode: "Deathmaker: Part 1")
2020 Call the Midwife Florrie Watkins TV series (1 episode: "Episode 2")

References

  1. ^ a b Trowbridge, Simon (2008). "Amanda Root". Stratfordians, a dictionary of the RSC. Oxford, England: Editions Albert Creed. pp. 429–430. ISBN 978-0-9559830-1-6.
  2. ^ Regency World magazine interview with Amanda Root Archived 15 July 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ Billington, Michael (7 October 2008). "Theatre review: The Norman Conquests / Old Vic, London". The Guardian.
  4. ^ "BBC Radio 4 – 15 Minute Drama, A Pin to See the Peep Show". BBC.
  5. ^ "Sir Arnold Wesker – Playwright". arnoldwesker.com.
  6. ^ The Stage radio review The Rocking Horse
  7. ^ http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00773j8
  8. ^ "Theatre, dance, opera and cabaret reviews". The Stage.
  9. ^ "Theatre, dance, opera and cabaret reviews". The Stage.
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