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Joanna Scanlan

Michael Berkeley鈥檚 guest is actress Joanna Scanlan. With music by Brahms, Hildegard of Bingen and Florence Foster Jenkins.

Joanna Scanlan is one of our great comic actors; she鈥檚 best-known for 鈥淭he Thick of It鈥, where she plays the obstructive civil servant Terri Coverley. But her range is much wider than comedy. She鈥檚 extraordinarily moving in 鈥淎fter Love鈥, Aleem Khan鈥檚 2021 film about a widow who discovers her husband鈥檚 secret life 鈥 a performance so powerful that it dominates the whole film, and won her BAFTA鈥檚 lead actress award in 2022.

Before that, she played Charles Dickens's long-suffering wife, Catherine, in 鈥淭he Invisible Woman鈥 鈥 and appeared in 鈥淕irl with a Pearl Earring鈥 and 鈥淣otes on a Scandal鈥, to name just a couple of her film roles. On television she鈥檚 familiar from 鈥淭he Larkins鈥, 鈥淣o Offence鈥 and 鈥淧uppy Love鈥 鈥 a series she co-wrote. She also co-wrote 鈥淕etting On鈥, a blackly comic portrayal of life on an NHS ward, which has become a great deal more topical in the fourteen years since it was first broadcast.

Born in Merseyside, Joanna Scanlan grew up in North Wales; she went to Cambridge to study history and law, and only got her first job as an actress when she was thirty-four, after having a breakdown.

She tells Michael about how that breakdown became a turning point, thanks to a doctor who told her that she would be ill all her life unless she acted. She remembers her schooldays in Wales, when she sang in a choir five times a day, and her early career working for the Arts Council, where the power-mad clock-watchers she worked with became the inspiration for the character of Terri Coverley.

A Loftus Media production for 大象传媒 Radio 3
Produced by Elizabeth Burke

Available now

38 minutes

Last on

Sun 29 Jan 2023 12:00

Music Played

  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

    Der Holle Rache (Die Zauberflote)

    Performer: Cosm茅 McMoon. Singer: Florence Foster Jenkins.
  • Henry Walford Davies

    I will lift up mine eyes (Psalm 121)

    Choir: The Choir of Canterbury Cathedral. Conductor: David Flood.
  • Gavin Bryars

    Jesus' blood never failed me yet

    Ensemble: Hampton String Quartet. Ensemble: Gavin Bryars Ensemble.
  • Johannes Brahms

    Intermezzo in E flat major, Op.117 no.1

    Performer: Radu Lupu.
  • Hildegard von Bingen

    O viridissima virga

    Choir: Sequentia. Conductor: Barbara Thornton.
  • Richard Wagner

    O sink hernieder (Tristan und Isolde)

    Singer: Margaret Price. Singer: Ren茅 Kollo. Orchestra: Staatskapelle Dresden. Conductor: Carlos Kleiber.
  • Alexandre Desplat

    Griet's Theme (Girl with a Pearl Earring)

  • Alessandro Scarlatti

    Le Violette

    Performer: John Constable. Singer: Stuart Burrows.

Broadcast

  • Sun 29 Jan 2023 12:00

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