Dame Penelope Alice Wilton (born 3 June 1946), styled Penelope, Lady Holm between 1998 and 2001, is an English actress. She is known for starring opposite Richard Briers in the BBC

sitcom A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ...

Ever Decreasing Circles ''Ever Decreasing Circles'' is a British sitcom which ran on BBC1 between 1984 and 1989, consisting of four series and one feature-length special. It was written by John Esmonde and Bob Larbey, and it reunited them with Richard Briers, who h ...

'' (1984–1989); playing Homily in '' The Borrowers'' (1992) and ''

The Return of the Borrowers ''The Return of the Borrowers'' is a BBC TV children's programme first broadcast in 1993 on BBC2 and then later on American television station TNT. The series is adapted from the third and fourth novels of author Mary Norton's ''The Borrower ...

'' (1993); and for her role as the widowed Isobel Crawley in the ITV drama ''

Downton Abbey ''Downton Abbey'' is a British historical drama television series set in the early 20th century, created and co-written by Julian Fellowes. The series first aired in the United Kingdom on ITV on 26 September 2010 and in the United States o ...

'' (2010–2015). She also played the recurring role of

Harriet Jones Harriet Jones is a fictional character played by Penelope Wilton in the long-running British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. Having worked previously with lead writer and executive producer Russell T Davies, Wilton was keen ...

in ''

Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series depicts the adventures of a Time Lord called the Doctor, an extraterrestrial being who appears to be human. The Doctor explores the ...

'' (2005–2008) and Anne in Ricky Gervais'

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a ...

dark comedy '' After Life''. Wilton has had an extensive career on stage, receiving six

Olivier Award The Laurence Olivier Awards, or simply the Olivier Awards, are presented annually by the Society of London Theatre to recognise excellence in professional theatre in London at an annual ceremony in the capital. The awards were originally known a ...

nominations. She was nominated for '' Man and Superman'' (1981), '' The Secret Rapture'' (1988), '' The Deep Blue Sea'' (1994), '' John Gabriel Borkman'' (2008) and ''

The Chalk Garden ''The Chalk Garden'' is a play by Enid Bagnold that premiered in the US in 1955 and was produced in Britain the following year. It tells the story of the imperious Mrs St Maugham and her granddaughter Laurel, a disturbed child under the care of ...

'' (2009), before winning the 2015 Olivier Award for Best Actress for '' Taken at Midnight''. Her film appearances include ''

Clockwise Two-dimensional rotation can occur in two possible directions. Clockwise motion (abbreviated CW) proceeds in the same direction as a clock's hands: from the top to the right, then down and then to the left, and back up to the top. The opposite ...

'' (1986), ''

Cry Freedom ''Cry Freedom'' is a 1987 epic apartheid drama film directed and produced by Richard Attenborough, set in late-1970s apartheid-era South Africa. The screenplay was written by John Briley based on a pair of books by journalist Donald Woods. ...

'' (1987), '' Calendar Girls'' (2003), ''

Shaun of the Dead ''Shaun of the Dead'' is a 2004 zombie comedy film directed by Edgar Wright and written by Wright and Simon Pegg. Pegg stars as Shaun, a downtrodden salesman in London who is caught in a zombie apocalypse with his friend Ed ( Nick Frost). The ...

'' (2004), '' Match Point'' (2005), ''

Pride & Prejudice ''Pride and Prejudice'' is an 1813 novel of manners by Jane Austen. The novel follows the character development of Elizabeth Bennet, the dynamic protagonist of the book who learns about the repercussions of hasty judgments and comes to appre ...

'' (2005), '' The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel'' (2012), '' The Girl'' (2012) and ''

The BFG ''The BFG'' (short for ''The Big Friendly Giant'') is a 1982 children's book written by British novelist Roald Dahl and illustrated by Quentin Blake. It is an expansion of a short story from Dahl's 1975 book ''Danny, the Champion of the World'' ...

'' (2016).

Early life and background

Wilton was born in Scarborough,

North Riding of Yorkshire The North Riding of Yorkshire is a subdivision of Yorkshire, England, alongside York, the East Riding and West Riding. The riding's highest point is at Mickle Fell with 2,585 ft (788 metres). From the Restoration it was used ...

, the second of three daughters of Cliff Wilton, a

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

-educated businessman and barrister who had played

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...

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. Leviathan, the Business Who's who- A Biographical Dictionary of Chairmen, Chief Executives and Managing Directors of British-registered Companies, ed. Ruth Dinning, Leviathan House, 1972, p. 398 She is a niece of actors Bill Travers and Linden Travers. Her cousins include the actors

Angela Angela may refer to: Places * Angela, Montana * Angela Lake, in Volusia County, Florida * Lake Angela, in Lyon Township, Oakland County, Michigan * Lake Angela, the reservoir impounded by the source dam of the South Yuba River Fiction * An ...

and Richard Morant. Her maternal grandparents owned theatres. She attended the

Drama Centre London Drama Centre London (often abbreviated as Drama Centre) was a British drama school in King's Cross, London, where it moved in 2011 after a major reshaping of the University of the Arts London. It was part of Central Saint Martins, a constitue ...

from 1965 to 1968.Drama Centre: watch this face
, blogs.arts.ac.uk, 22 March 2009; accessed 14 June 2016.

Career

Wilton began her career on stage in 1969 at the

Nottingham Playhouse Nottingham Playhouse is a theatre in Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, England. It was first established as a repertory theatre in 1948 when it operated from a former cinema in Goldsmith Street. Directors during this period included Val May and F ...

. Her early roles included Cordelia in ''

King Lear ''King Lear'' is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare. It is based on the mythological Leir of Britain. King Lear, in preparation for his old age, divides his power and land between two of his daughters. He becomes destitute and insane a ...

'', both in Nottingham and at

The Old Vic The Old Vic is a 1,000-seat, not-for-profit producing theatre in Waterloo, London, England. Established in 1818 as the Royal Coburg Theatre, and renamed in 1833 the Royal Victoria Theatre. In 1871 it was rebuilt and reopened as the Royal ...

. She made her

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

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 Sir Ralph David Richardson (19 December 1902 – 10 October 1983) was an English actor who, with John Gielgud and Laurence Olivier, was one of the trinity of male actors who dominated the British stage for much of the 20th century. He w ...

, in the

John Osborne John James Osborne (12 December 1929 – 24 December 1994) was an English playwright, screenwriter and actor, known for his prose that criticized established social and political norms. The success of his 1956 play '' Look Back in Anger'' tr ...

play ''West of Suez'' at the

Cambridge Theatre The Cambridge Theatre is a West End theatre, on a corner site in Earlham Street facing Seven Dials, in the London Borough of Camden, built in 1929–30 for Bertie Meyer on an "irregular triangular site". Design and construction It was de ...

. She had previously appeared in both plays at the

Royal Court Theatre The Royal Court Theatre, at different times known as the Court Theatre, the New Chelsea Theatre, and the Belgravia Theatre, is a non-commercial West End theatre in Sloane Square, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England ...

. She played Ruth in the original 1974 London stage production of

Alan Ayckbourn Sir Alan Ayckbourn (born 12 April 1939) is a prolific British playwright and director. He has written and produced as of 2021, more than eighty full-length plays in Scarborough and London and was, between 1972 and 2009, the artistic director o ...

's '' Norman Conquests'' trilogy. Her television acting career began in 1972, playing Vivie Warren in the BBC2's adaptation of ''

Mrs. Warren's Profession ''Mrs. Warren's Profession'' is a play written by George Bernard Shaw in 1893, and first performed in London in 1902. The play is about a former prostitute, now a madam ( brothel proprietor), who attempts to come to terms with her disapproving ...

'' opposite

Coral Browne Coral Edith Browne (23 July 1913 – 29 May 1991) was an Australian-American stage and screen actress. Her extensive theatre credits included Broadway productions of ''Macbeth'' (1956), '' The Rehearsal'' (1963) and '' The Right Honourable Gent ...

in the title role and

Robert Powell Robert Powell (; born 1 June 1944) is an English actor who is known for the title roles in '' Mahler'' (1974) and ''Jesus of Nazareth'' (1977), and for his portrayal of secret agent Richard Hannay in '' The Thirty Nine Steps'' (1978) and its s ...

. The production was repeated as part of the '' Play of the Month'' series in 1974 on BBC1. In 1994, Wilton portrayed Browne in a radio adaptation of '' An Englishman Abroad'' for the

BBC World Service The BBC World Service is an international broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC, with funding from the British Government through the Foreign Secretary's office. It is the world's largest external broadcaster in terms of reception a ...

and repeated on various BBC radio formats since. Following from the broadcast of 'Mrs. Warren's Profession', Wilton then had several major TV roles, including two of the BBC Television Shakespeare productions (as

Desdemona Desdemona () is a character in William Shakespeare's play ''Othello'' (c. 1601–1604). Shakespeare's Desdemona is a Venetian beauty who enrages and disappoints her father, a Venetian senator, when she elopes with Othello, a Moorish Venetian ...

in ''

Othello ''Othello'' (full title: ''The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice'') is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare, probably in 1603, set in the contemporary Ottoman–Venetian War (1570–1573) fought for the control of the Island of Cyp ...

'' and

Regan The family name Regan, along with its cognates O'Regan, O Regan, Reagan, and O'Reagan, is an Anglicized form of the Irish surname Ó Riagáin or Ó Ríogáin, from Ua Riagáin. The meaning is likely to have originated in ancient Gaelic ''ri'' ...

in ''

'' ). Wilton's film career includes roles in '' The French Lieutenant's Woman'' (1981), ''

'' (1987), '' Iris'' (2001), '' Calendar Girls'' (2003) and ''

'' (2004),

Jane Austen Jane Austen (; 16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817) was an English novelist known primarily for her six major novels, which interpret, critique, and comment upon the British landed gentry at the end of the 18th century. Austen's plots of ...

's ''

Pride and Prejudice ''Pride and Prejudice'' is an 1813 novel of manners by Jane Austen. The novel follows the character development of Elizabeth Bennet, the dynamic protagonist of the book who learns about the repercussions of hasty judgments and comes to appreci ...

'' (2005),

Woody Allen Heywood "Woody" Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg; November 30, 1935) is an American film director, writer, actor, and comedian whose career spans more than six decades and multiple Academy Award-winning films. He began his career writing ...

's '' Match Point'' (2005), and in '' The History Boys'' (2006). She did not become a household name until she appeared with Richard Briers in the 1984 BBC situation comedy, ''

'', which ran for five years. She played Ann, long suffering wife of Martin (Briers), an obsessive and pedantic "do-gooder". In 2005, Wilton guest starred as

for two episodes in the BBC's revival of the popular TV

science-fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

series ''

''. This guest role was written especially for her by the programme's chief writer and executive producer

Russell T. Davies Stephen Russell Davies (born 27 April 1963), better known as Russell T Davies, is a Welsh screenwriter and television producer whose works include '' Queer as Folk'', '' The Second Coming'', ''Casanova'', the 2005 revival of the BBC One sci ...

, with whom she had worked on '' Bob and Rose'' ( ITV, 2001). The character of Jones returned as Prime Minister in the ''Doctor Who'' 2005 Christmas special " The Christmas Invasion". In the first part of the 2008 series finale, " The Stolen Earth", she made a final appearance, now as the former Prime Minister who sacrifices herself by extermination by the

Daleks The Daleks ( ) are a fictional extraterrestrials in fiction, extraterrestrial race of mutants principally portrayed in the British science fiction on television, science fiction television programme ''Doctor Who''. They were conceived by write ...

so that the Doctor's companions can contact him. Penelope Wilton & Jim Carter

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 ''Half Broken Things'' is a 2003 psychological thriller novel by Scottish writer Morag Joss. It won the CWA Silver Dagger in 2003. Plot The lives of three very lonely people—pregnant Steph, on the run from her violent boyfriend; Michael, a p ...

'' (October 2007) and the BBC production of ''The Passion'' (Easter 2008). Beginning in 2010, she appeared as Isobel Crawley in all six seasons of the hit period drama ''

''. She was the castaway on

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC's ...

's ''

Desert Island Discs ''Desert Island Discs'' is a radio programme broadcast on BBC Radio 4. It was first broadcast on the BBC Forces Programme on 29 January 1942. Each week a guest, called a "castaway" during the programme, is asked to choose eight recordings (usua ...

'' in April 2008. In December 2012 and February 2013, she was the narrator in Lin Coghlan's dramatisation of Elizabeth Jane Howard's ''The Cazalets'', broadcast on BBC Radio.

Personal life

Between 1975 and 1984, Wilton was married to the actor Daniel Massey. They had a daughter, Alice, born in 1977. Before that, they had had a stillborn son. In 1991, Wilton married

Ian Holm Sir Ian Holm Cuthbert (12 September 1931 – 19 June 2020) was an English actor who was knighted in 1998 for his contributions to theatre and film. Beginning his career on the British stage as a standout member of the Royal Shakespeare Compan ...

. In 1992, they appeared together as Pod and Homily in the BBC's adaptation of '' The Borrowers''. A year later, they appeared together in a follow-up ''

''. In 1998, Ian Holm was knighted and Wilton became Lady Holm. They divorced in 2001.

Honours

Wilton was appointed an

Officer of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...

(OBE) in the

2004 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 2004 were appointments by some of the Commonwealth realms to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by citizens of those countries. The New Year Honours are awarded as part of the New Year celebrations ...

and was elevated to become a

Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...

(DBE) in the 2016 Birthday Honours, both for services to drama.

Awards and recognition

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

Filmography

Film

Television

Stage

References

External links

* * * Gareth McLean
Unspoken worlds
25 October 2007, ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...

''
Ancestry of Penelope Wilton

Penelope Wilton
interview on BBC Radio 4 ''

'', 4 April 2008 {{DEFAULTSORT:Wilton, Penelope 1946 births 20th-century English actresses 21st-century English actresses Actresses awarded British damehoods Actresses from Yorkshire Alumni of the Drama Centre London Critics' Circle Theatre Award winners Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire English film actresses English stage actresses English television actresses Laurence Olivier Award winners Living people Penelope Wilton Actors from Scarborough, North Yorkshire