Gracing screens, treading boards, royal roles – much-loved actress Dame Penelope Wilton has done it all!
WORDS: ALISON JAMES PICTURES: SHUTTERSTOCK, ALAMY
It’s not every day that a theatrical Dame graces your local cinema in person, but Penelope Wilton just happens to be at mine.
She’s not popped into the west London picture house to watch a film but to be part of a special event celebrating the life and work of Lord Richard Attenborough, the acclaimed actor, writer, director and producer.
Penelope starred in his award-winning 1987 film Cry Freedom as Wendy Woods, wife of journalist Donald Woods who became a friend and champion of murdered black activist Steve Biko.
She is about to return to the West End stage to portray another real-life person, in the form of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother.
The play, Backstairs Billy, co-stars Welsh actor Luke Evans as the Queen Mum’s long-serving, ever-loyal page, William “Billy” Tallon, and focuses in on a seismic episode in their mistress-and-servant relationship.
“It’s a wonderful script – very, very funny,” Dame Penelope tells us. “I can’t wait for us to open.
“I like making people laugh. There is a certain responsibility that comes with playing people who actually lived – especially one like the Queen Mother, whom everyone remembers and loved. I hope that everyone will like my portrayal of her and also enjoys the play.”
It’s not the first time she’s played a member of the royal family. In 2016, she starred in Steven Spielberg’s cinematic interpretation of the Roald Dahl classic The BFG (Big Friendly Giant), playing Elizabeth II.
“I liked playing the Queen,” she said at the time of the film’s release. “I mean, it was Roald Dahl’s queen and Quentin Blake’s queen, with a little bit of Steven Spielberg’s queen and then I threw in my ten-pennyworth.”
Penelope has wowed fans and audiences in some incredible films and TV dramas, but theatre is her first love.
She started her career at the Nottingham Playhouse in 1969 and finally won an Olivier Award in 2015 for the play Taken At Midnight, following six nominations over the years for best actress.
“I am lucky enough to have worked in the three mediums of television, film and theatre,” she says, “but of them all, theatre has meant the most. To be in the theatre, you need to have passion. There is no point being a careful actor – you have to tak
