21 Facts About Penelope Wilton

1.

Penelope Wilton played the recurring role of Harriet Jones in Doctor Who and Anne in Ricky Gervais' Netflix dark comedy After Life.

2.

Penelope Wilton has had an extensive career on stage, receiving six Olivier Award nominations.

3.

Penelope Wilton was nominated for Man and Superman, The Secret Rapture, The Deep Blue Sea, John Gabriel Borkman and The Chalk Garden, before winning the 2015 Olivier Award for Best Actress for Taken at Midnight.

4.

Penelope Wilton was born in Scarborough, North Riding of Yorkshire, the second of three daughters of Cliff Penelope Wilton, a Cambridge-educated businessman and barrister who had played rugby union on the amateur and provincial level, going on to be an administrator in the sport, and Alice Linda Travers, a tap dancer and former actress.

5.

Penelope Wilton is a niece of actors Bill Travers and Linden Travers.

6.

Penelope Wilton attended the Drama Centre London from 1965 to 1968.

7.

Penelope Wilton began her career on stage in 1969 at the Nottingham Playhouse.

8.

Penelope Wilton made her Broadway debut in March 1971 when she played Araminta in the original Broadway production of The Philanthropist, and made her West End debut in August 1971 opposite Sir Ralph Richardson, in the John Osborne play West of Suez at the Cambridge Theatre.

9.

Penelope Wilton had previously appeared in both plays at the Royal Court Theatre.

10.

Penelope Wilton played Ruth in the original 1974 London stage production of Alan Ayckbourn's Norman Conquests trilogy.

11.

Penelope Wilton's television acting career began in 1972, playing Vivie Warren in the BBC2's adaptation of Mrs Warren's Profession opposite Coral Browne in the title role and Robert Powell.

12.

In 1994, Penelope Wilton portrayed Browne in a radio adaptation of An Englishman Abroad for the BBC World Service and repeated on various BBC radio formats since.

13.

Penelope Wilton did not garner fame until she appeared with Richard Briers in the 1984 BBC situation comedy, Ever Decreasing Circles, which ran for five years.

14.

Penelope Wilton played Ann, long suffering wife of Martin, an obsessive and pedantic "do-gooder".

15.

In 2005, Penelope Wilton guest starred as Harriet Jones for two episodes in the BBC's revival of the popular TV science-fiction series Doctor Who.

16.

Penelope Wilton appeared on television as Barbara Poole, the mother of a missing woman, in the BBC television drama series Five Days in 2005; and in ITV's drama Half Broken Things and the BBC production of The Passion.

17.

Penelope Wilton was the castaway on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs in April 2008.

18.

Between 1975 and 1984, Penelope Wilton was married to actor Daniel Massey.

19.

In 1998, Ian Holm was knighted and Penelope Wilton became Lady Holm.

20.

Penelope Wilton was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 2004 New Year Honours and was elevated to become a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2016 Birthday Honours, both for services to drama.

21.

In 2012, Penelope Wilton received an honorary doctorate from the University of Hull Scarborough Campus.