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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 成人论坛 Radio 3
Produced by Elizabeth Burke