ACTRESS EXTRAORDINAIRE

FOR the actress who has been a Midsomer murderer, an impressive Queen Anne and, more recently, a mad as a hatter Miss Havisham Olivia Colman has proved that talent endures.

When her face pops up on the large or small screen you know that this is worth watching – and that you’re in for a treat.

She has crammed in a remarkably wide range of characters and performances since her first acting experience in a school production of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie when she was 16.

But along the way, she has won plenty of plaudits and acclaim from both her audiences and from fellow actors and took an Oscar for her role in The Favourite in 2018.

Olivia was born and brought up in Norwich and briefly considered a teaching career, taking a teaching course at Cambridge University where she also met her future husband, Ed Sinclair.

Acting, however, pulled her away from the world of education and she enrolled at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School which acting luminaries like Daniel Day-Lewis, Jeremy Irons and Patrick Stewart all attended.

She made an early friendship in her acting career with comedy team David Mitchell and Thomas Webb. They went on to star in their own comedy sketch shows and Olivia was invited to join them.

She was also part of their subsequent shows That Mitchell and Webb Look and the acclaimed Peep Show, where she convinced the writers to make her role less likeable because of the way her character treated David Mitchell’s.

Her versatility as an actress was soon recognised and she became a familiar TV face on everything from The Office to Holby City. Comedy, though, remained one of her acknowledged strengths and she was also in regular series including Green Wing, Beautiful People, Rev, Flowers and Fleabag.

In fact, in 2012 Olivia received the BAFTA Award for Best Female Comedy Performance for the comedy series Twenty Twelve. Interestingly – and just to highlight her own diversity – she also received the Best Supporting Actress award for crime programme Accused that year, too.

In 2013, she appeared in the much-admired crime drama Broadchurch, for which she received a British Academy Television Award for Best Actress.

She was also in charismatic thriller mini-series The Night Manager in 2016, scooping a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Mini-series or Television Film.

For The Night Manager, Olivia persuaded director Susanne Bier to hire her for the role of Angela Burr despite being heavily pregnant with her third child at the time.

Mini-series generally have proved very fruitful for the actress. In the Netflix series The Crown, she played Queen Elizabeth II and won a Golden Globe Award and a Primetime Emmy Award as well as many new fans.

Other TV roles included Les Miserables in 2019, Landscapers in 2021 and, more recently, romantic comedy drama Heartstopper.

Her role as wealthy, eccentric and sadistic Miss Havisham in the latest TV series based on Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations has prompted a variety of headlines.

Not everyone accepted this more extreme version of Miss Havisham although Olivia remained a fan. She told the BBC: “It’s terrible what happens to Miss Havisham. If only she’d had a therapist or a really good friend to chat to, she might be in a better place.”

She said that Miss Havisham’s heartbreak was relatable to anyone who had been through a bad break-up. “I do understand the upset,” she said, “but I don’t really understand how she’s managed to keep it going for so long.”

Period black comedy and critical screen success The Favourite with Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz was another opinion-dividing film. Few, however, could argue about the quality of Olivia’s performance as the troubled Queen Anne.

Explaining what drew her to the role, Olivia stated:

She has never shied away from tackling difficult themes. In 2020, she starred with Anthony Hopkins in the adaptation of his stage play The Father which focused on an elderly man dealing with memory loss.

This depiction of dementia earned widespread praise for both Hopkins and Olivia and the film received six Academy Award nominations, including one for her as Best Supporting Actress.

This year will see her star in the Disney+ mini-series Secret Invasion, set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And, just for contrast, she was also cast in the musical film Wonka, a prequel to Roald Dah’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which is scheduled for release in December.

Not too surprisingly, Olivia was awarded the CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the 2019 Queens Birthday Honours List in recognition of her services to drama.

Away from the large and small screen, Olivia is busy with her three children – two sons and a daughter – and life with her husband who is a well-known TV writer.

In her very diverse career she has also received great reviews and acclaim for roles in Hot Fuzz (2007), Tyrannosaur (2011), The Iron Lady (2011), Hyde Park on Hudson (2012), Locke (2013), The Lobster (2015), Murder on the Orient Express (2017), The Mitchells v The Machines (2021), Empire of Light (2022) and Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022). The list goes on and on.

She has supported a number of charities, including as an ambassador for UNICEF UK since 2015, and is often outspoken on various issues concerning women and children.

Olivia is 50 next January – a time when people often re-evaulate their lives. But you just get the feeling that Olivia Colman, actress extraordinaire, probably already has it all sorted.