Nicola Walker

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Nicola Walker
Born (1970-05-15) 15 May 1970 (age 54)
Stepney, London, U.K.
Nationality British
Education Forest School, Walthamstow
Alma mater New Hall, Cambridge
Footlights
Occupation Actress
Years active 1990-present
Spouse(s) Barnaby Kay
Children Harry Kay

Nicola Walker (born 15 May 1970) is an English actress, known for her starring roles in various British television programmes from the 1990s onwards, including Ruth Evershed in the spy drama Spooks from 2003-2011. She has also worked in theatre, radio and film. In 2013, she won the Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actress for the play The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. In 2014, she was nominated for the BAFTA TV Award for Best Supporting Actress for the BBC drama Last Tango in Halifax.

Early life

Walker was born in Stepney in the East End of London and has an older brother. She attended Saint Nicholas School, Old Harlow, and Forest School, Walthamstow, and undertook acting classes from age 12 to speak to boys.[1] Interviewed in 2014 by The Guardian, she said, "I was really encouraged by my mother. My dad thought it was a ridiculous thing to do."[2]

Walker then attended New Hall, Cambridge, where she started her acting career with the Cambridge Footlights. Her contemporaries included Spooks writer David Wolstencroft and comedienne Sue Perkins, who were all part of the 1990 national tour.[3] Perkins, then an older undergraduate, was assigned to be her "college mother", although Walker later said: "She was the worst college mother I could have had .. They’re meant to hold your hand. She asked to borrow my bike, got drunk and I never saw it again." Walker acted on stage as Perkins's stooge and years later their partnership was resumed when Perkins cast Walker in her sitcom Heading Out.[2]

Career

Offered a place at RADA, on graduation from Cambridge, she already had some roles and an agent, so Walker decided to pursue her acting career. Based in London, she shared a flat with Perkins, Sarah Phelps, and Emma Kennedy, and acted at the Edinburgh Festival and the London Festival Fringe.[1]

Her first major television roles were in 1997, as Gypsy Jones in Channel 4's adaptation of A Dance To The Music Of Time, and as English teacher Suzy Travis in two series of Steven Moffat's school-based sitcom Chalk.[4] She has also appeared in guest roles in episodes of series such as Dalziel and Pascoe, Jonathan Creek, Pie in the Sky, and Broken News.

She got the leading part of DI Susan Taylor in the ITV thriller serial Touching Evil in 1997, co-starring opposite Robson Green. She also appeared in its two sequel serials in 1998 and 1999. Also in 1999, she took the lead role in the post-apocalyptic drama serial The Last Train, also screened on ITV (and written by future Spooks writer Matthew Graham). Also in 2003, Walker played Molly in the BBC Radio adaptation of Neuromancer by William Gibson.

In 2003, with the production team of Kudos Television looking to replace the character played by Jenny Agutter in Series 1 of Spooks, the part of Ruth Evershed was specially written for Walker from Series 2.[1] She remained with the show until the fifth series, during the production of which it was announced she was expecting her first child and would be leaving. She returned in 2009 and continued until the series ended in 2011. Benji Wilson of The Daily Telegraph praised Walker's performance, stating: "an actress who has squeezed every drop out of TV’s greatest ever largely dumbstruck doormat for the best part of a decade. Her scenes with Peter Firth, another fine player, have become self-contained little bubbles of weltschmerz within every recent episode".[5]

In 2007, Walker had a prominent supporting role as a child snatcher in the ITV1 drama serial Torn and appeared in the BBC adaptation of Oliver Twist.

In film, her roles have tended to be smaller supporting parts. Her most prominent role has been as the irritating folk singer in Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), who sings "Can't Smile Without You" at the first wedding. She also appeared in the feature film adaptation of the classic television series Thunderbirds (2004).

In 2009, she appeared as a maid in a new BBC adaptation of Henry James' The Turn of the Screw, which also starred Michelle Dockery and Sue Johnston. In 2010, Walker appeared as a beleaguered wife (Linda Shand) of a murderer in an episode of the BBC1 crime thriller Luther.[6]

In February 2011, she appeared as nervous social worker Wendy in the BBC TV series Being Human.[7] In February 2012, she played a major character in the one off BBC crime drama Inside Men.

In 2012 and 2013, she appeared alongside Derek Jacobi, Anne Reid, and Sarah Lancashire, in two series of the BBC original drama Last Tango in Halifax. Last Tango in Halifax was commissioned for a third series, which was filmed in the summer of 2014.

In February and March 2013, Walker reunited with her former Cambridge Footlights colleague Sue Perkins in the BBC comedy Heading Out. She then appeared in the second series of Prisoners' Wives and the third series of Scott and Bailey.

Walker won an Olivier Award in 2013 for Best Supporting Actress in her role as Judy, the main character Christopher's mother, in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. The play won seven Olivier Awards, equalling Matilda the Musical's record win in 2012.[8]

In 2014, she starred alongside Mark Strong and Phoebe Fox in Arthur Miller's play "A View from the Bridge", at the Young Vic theatre. The play received extremely positive reviews from critics and transferred to Wyndham's Theatre in London's West End in 2015.

Walker was agsin nominated for a Television BAFTA for "Best Supporting Actress" in 2014 for her role in Last Tango in Halifax, but the award was won by her co-star Sarah Lancashire.[9]

In July 2011, Walker played the significant supporting role of Medtech Liv Chenka in the Big Finish Productions Doctor Who audio drama Robophobia, opposite Sylvester McCoy as the Seventh Doctor. The Chenka character proved popular both with producers and listeners, and in February 2014 Walker returned to the role, this time as a foil for Paul McGann's Eighth Doctor in Dark Eyes 2. The character was sustained throughout Dark Eyes 3 and Dark Eyes 4, at the end of which it was revealed that Chenka was to continue as the Doctor's established travelling companion. In October 2015, Walker again returned to the role for Doom Coalition.

In 2015, she starred as DCI Cassie Stuart, alongside actor Sanjeev Bhaskar as DS Sunil "Sunny" Khan, in the ITV drama series Unforgotten, whilst simultaneously appearing as DS Jackie "Stevie" Stevenson as the colleague of DI John River, played by Stellan Skarsgård, in the BBC drama series River.[10][11]

Filmography

Film

Year Film Role Notes
1994 Milner Colette Brustein Television movie
1994 Four Weddings and a Funeral Frightful Folk Duo — Wedding One
1994 Faith Grace Television movie
1996 The Fortunes and Misfortunes of Moll Flanders Lucy Diver Television movie
1997 Cows Shirley Johnson Television movie
2000 Shiner Det. Sgt. Garland
2004 Thunderbirds Panhead's Mother
2005 Shooting Dogs Rachel
2007 Oliver Twist Sally Television movie
2009 The Turn of the Screw Carla Television movie

Television

Year Film Role Notes
1997 Pie in the Sky Carol Episode: "In the Smoke"
1997 A Dance to the Music of Time Gypsy Jones Episode: "The Twenties"
1997 Chalk Suzy Travis 12 episodes
1997–1999 Touching Evil Susan Taylor/D.I. Susan Taylor 16 episodes
1998 Jonathan Creek WPC Fay Radnor Episode: "Mother Redcap"
1999 The Last Train Harriet Ambrose 5 episodes
2000 Dalziel and Pascoe Abbie Hallingsworth Episode: "A Sweeter Lazarus"
2001 People Like Us Helen Meredith Episode: "The Journalist"
2003–2011 Spooks Ruth Evershed 33 episodes
2004 Red Cap Maj. Rebecca Garton Episode: "Fighting Fit"
2005 Broken News Katie Willard 3 episodes
2007 Torn Joanna Taylor 3 episodes
2010 Luther Linda Shand Episode: "#1.4"
2010 Law & Order: UK Daniela Renzo Episode: "ID"
2011 Being Human Wendy Episode: "The Longest Day"
2012 Inside Men Kirsty Coniston 4 episodes
2012 New Tricks Helen Hadley Episode: "Old School Ties"
2012 A Mother's Son DC Sue Upton 2 episodes
2012–present Last Tango in Halifax Gillian 18 episodes
Nominated—BAFTA TV Award for Best Supporting Actress
Nominated—Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film
2013 Prisoners’ Wives DCI Jo Fontaine 4 episodes
2013 Heading Out Justine 6 episodes
2013 Scott & Bailey Helen Bartlett 4 episodes
2014 Babylon Sharon Franklin, Assistant Commissioner 7 episodes
2015 Unforgotten DCI Cassie Stuart 6 episodes
2015 River DS Jackie "Stevie" Stevenson 6 episodes

Video Games

Year Film Role Notes
2011 The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Síle de Tansarville

Theatre credits

Personal life

She is married to actor Barnaby Kay. The couple have a son Harry (born 2006), who is named after Harry Pearce, the character of her co-star Peter Firth in Spooks.[1]

References

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  4. After the Chalk Dust Settled, featurette on Chalk Series 1 DVD, ReplayDVD.co.uk, prod. & dir. Craig Robins
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External links

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