Diane Botcher (born 2 June 1959) is a Welsh actress. She has starred in several British television sitcoms and dramas, including the
Sky comedy drama ''
Stella
Stella or STELLA may refer to:
Art, entertainment, and media Comedy
*Stella (comedy group), a comedy troupe consisting of Michael Showalter, Michael Ian Black and David Wain
Characters
*Stella (given name), including a list of characters with th ...
'',
BBC comedies ''
Little Britain'' and ''
Tittybangbang'' and the
ITV period 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 on ...
''. In 2018, she joined ''
Casualty'' as
Jan Jenning.
Early life
Botcher was born on 2 June 1959 in
Taibach,
Port Talbot
Port Talbot (, ) is a town and community in the county borough of Neath Port Talbot, Wales, situated on the east side of Swansea Bay, approximately from Swansea. The Port Talbot Steelworks covers a large area of land which dominates the sout ...
,
Glamorgan, in
Wales
Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...
, one of the two children of parents Bernard and Glenys Botcher. She read English and drama at
Warwick University
The University of Warwick ( ; abbreviated as ''Warw.'' in post-nominal letters) is a public research university on the outskirts of Coventry between the West Midlands (county), West Midlands and Warwickshire, England. The university was founded i ...
,
[ and after graduating, trained at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art drama school in London,]
Career
Throughout her long career on stage and screen, Botcher has been receiving warm reviews. In a performance of the musical ''Blood Brothers'' with the Sherman Theatre Company in 1986, Botcher's performance as the "warm-hearted mum" was singled out by a reviewer as one of the good points in a production which needed "beefing up".Follies
''Follies'' is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by James Goldman.
The plot takes place in a crumbling Broadway theater, now scheduled for demolition, previously home to a musical revue (based on the ''Ziegfeld Fo ...
'' was universally appreciated - “wonderful”, with a "stunner of a set piece";
In 2018, she began appearing in the BBC medical drama '' Casualty'' as Jan Jennings. Later that year, she also began portraying the role of Nana Margie in the BBC Three
BBC Three is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was first launched on 9 February 2003 with programmes targeting 16 to 34-year-olds, cov ...
series '' In My Skin''.
Filmography
Film
Television
Selected stage performances
References
External links
*
21st-century Welsh actresses
Living people
People from Port Talbot
Welsh television actresses
Welsh film actresses
1959 births
{{Wales-bio-stub