Annette Badland

Actress

Birthday August 26, 1950

Birth Sign Virgo

Birthplace Edgbaston, Birmingham, England

Age 73 years old

Nationality United Kingdom

#16000 Most Popular

1950

Annette Badland (born 26 August 1950) is an English actress known for a wide range of roles on television, radio, stage, and film.

She is best known for her roles as Charlotte in the BBC crime drama series Bergerac, Margaret Blaine in the BBC science fiction series Doctor Who, Mrs Glenna Fitzgibbons in the first season of Outlander, Babe Smith in the BBC soap opera EastEnders, and as Dr Fleur Perkins on the ITV mystery series Midsomer Murders.

Badland was born on 26 August 1950 in Edgbaston, Birmingham.

Her mother, originally from Loanhead, Scotland, relocated to Birmingham during World War II to work as a munitions and aircraft worker in the factories, where she met Badland's father.

Her family often returned to Scotland for holidays and to visit family, or sometimes they holidayed in Wales.

Badland trained in acting at East 15 Acting School in Loughton, Essex, working in "rep" at Southwold Summer Theatre during her time there.

1970

Her performance as the maid in Private Lives for the Summer 1970 season earned her an Equity Card and the right to work in the professional theatre.

1971

Second was writer Alan Bennett's ensemble piece Habeas Corpus, a farce penned in 1971 and set to modern music of that time.

1972

After drama school, Badland joined Ian McKellen's Actors' Company at the Cambridge Arts Theatre; her first professional productions were in director Noel Willman's Three Arrows (by Iris Murdoch) and Richard Cottrell's Ruling the Roost (Georges Feydeau) in October 1972.

1973

After pantomime (Toad of Toad Hall at the Dukes Theatre, Lancaster), at the end of that year she moved on to the 1973 season with the Royal Shakespeare Company at Stratford.

Her Audrey in As You Like It was considered an auspicious debut in a leading company.

1975

Badland's first professional television role was for Thames Television in 1975's feature length biopic The Naked Civil Servant, where she portrayed the tap-dancing pupil.

1978

Between 1978 and 1980, she was featured in a series one episode of BBC Two's The Devil's Crown, an episode of Southern Television’s Spearhead, ATV's long running serial Crossroads, made-for-TV film Flat Bust, BBC One's Shoestring, and Thames Television's The Dick Emery Hour.

1980

ITV's crime drama The Gentle Touch, a police drama set in 1980's Britain, featured her in the series three episode "Solution".

She also guest-starred as a nurse in both BBC's period drama Nanny and Thames Television's crime series Minder.

1981

From there she secured a recurring role as Charlotte in BBC's crime drama Bergerac (1981–84), a four-episode stint in Thames Television's Bognor, BBC's mini-series Great Expectations, and several episodes of BBC Two's comedy The Last Song.

1982

1982 saw Badland appear in several guest-starring roles in episodic television.

1983

In February 1983 she starred as Vera in PBS's comedic mini-series Pictures, set during the era of silent films, which was broadcast on Masterpiece Theatre.

Later that year, Badland guest-starred on an episode of BBC Two's satirical mini-series The Old Men At The Zoo, which was based upon Angus Wilson's dystopian novel of the same name.

1984

ABC's drama Lace, originally aired in 1984, featured Badland alongside Angela Lansbury and Phoebe Cates.

1992

Badland joined the cast of Jim Cartwright's play The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, which centres on a shy young woman from Lancashire who expresses herself through song, at the Aldwych Theatre from October 1992 through February 1993.

1993

She was nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role in 1993 for her performance as Sadie in Jim Cartwright's play The Rise and Fall of Little Voice; a role she reprised in the 1998 film adaptation Little Voice.

1994

In 1994, she starred in Tony Kushner's post-communist tragic comedy Slavs!, which explored the repercussions of the post Soviet era.

1998

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, a play adapted from Muriel Sparks's novel about an otherwise inspirational teacher who transpires to have an unhealthy admiration for fascist leaders, saw Badland as headmistress Miss Mackay on London's West End in 1998.

1999

She went on to perform opposite Jude Law in both David Lan's 1999 production of 'Tis Pity She's a Whore and his 2002 production of Doctor Faustus at the Young Vic Theatre in London.

2006

In 2006, Badland worked with The Peter Hall Company on two productions at the Theatre Royal in Bath, England.

The first was Shakespeare's Measure for Measure, a drama centring on protagonist Isabella's moral dilemma of whether or not to sacrifice her virginity to save her brother.

2007

She went on to work with Hall again in 2007 in a production of Noël Coward's The Vortex at London's Apollo Theatre.

2009

During the Tiata Delights Festival in 2009, Badland performed in Zimbabwean playwright Michael Bhim's The Golden Hour, a thriller set in a London hospital where the main character encounters a baby he thinks has been brought to the country illegally.

That same year she participated in Hampstead Theatre's (London) fiftieth anniversary season by starring in Michael Frayn's play Alphabetical Order, which is set in a provincial newspaper library.

Finishing out 2009, Badland featured as psychic medium Madame Arcat in Noël Coward's comedy Blithe Spirit at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester, England.

2010

With a cast consisting mostly of child actors, Badland starred as the headmistress in 2010's Royal Court Theatre production of Kin, a disturbing play detailing the lives of young girls at boarding school.

From there she went on to star in Far Away, Caryl Churchill's dystopian drama where the future is war, at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre.

2018

In 2018, Badland signed on to work with The Globe Theatre in London in their production of Blanche McIntyre's The Winter's Tale, which was broadcast live to theatres in October of that year, and Matt Hartley's Eyam, based upon the true story of a Derbyshire village that voluntarily quarantined themselves during an outbreak of the Black Plague.

2019

During the first quarter of 2019, Badland starred in two separate productions, featuring the same cast, at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse in London.

The first was Edward II, where she portrayed Mortimer, and the second was After Edward, a response to Marlowe's Edward II, where she portrayed Gertrude Stein.

In September 2019, Badland was made a patron of The Old Rep Theatre in Birmingham.

The theatre dedicated a seat in her honour that reads "Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it".

2020

In March 2020 she appeared in Our Lady of Blundellsands, a new play written by Jonathan Harvey as one of the two sisters in the dysfunctional Domingo family.

In September 2021, she was the sole performer in a special event held on the Golden Hind in Brixham Harbour to mark the 131st anniversary of the birth of the crime writer Agatha Christie: fittingly, specific details of the event were not publicised in advance and the audience of 30 was sworn to secrecy.