Amanda Root

That same year, Root was sought by the actress Emma Thompson for the role of Marianne in Sense and Sensibility, based on the 1811 novel by Jane Austen.

She participated in a read through in London with the cast but was unable to take on the role (it would later go to Kate Winslet) as she had already committed to star as Anne Elliot in another Austen adaptation, Persuasion.

The film, made by the BBC for drama anthology series Screen Two, reunited Root with Ciarán Hinds, who played Captain Wentworth.

Amanda Root (born 1963) is an English actress.

After graduating from the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art, she began her career at the Leeds Playhouse in 1983 when she played Essie in George Bernard Shaw's The Devil's Disciple.

She worked regularly with the RSC in Stratford-upon-Avon and London from 1983 to 1991, including playing the role of Juliet to Daniel Day-Lewis's Romeo; a very young Lady Macbeth; Cressida to Ralph Fiennes's Troilus, and Rosaline to his Berowne.

She also appeared as Jessica opposite Ian McDiarmid’s Shylock in The Merchant of Venice.

She was a remarkably complete actress even in her early twenties, when physically she looked little more than a child.

With her dark soulful eyes she could command a stage, and the Royal Shakespeare Company saw her talent very early on.

She worked regularly with the RSC in Stratford-upon-Avon and London from 1983 to 1991, including playing the role of Juliet to Daniel Day-Lewis's Romeo; a very young Lady Macbeth; Cressida to Ralph Fiennes's Troilus, and Rosaline to his Berowne.

In 1985, Root made her television debut in the pilot episode of Ladies in Charge, as one of a trio of women setting up an agency to help others in postwar London.

She then starred as the title character in Mary Rose, a television drama based on the play by J.M. Barrie.

In 1988, she featured as the Storyteller in five episodes of children’s series Jackanory, and the following year voiced Sophie in animated feature The BFG.

The film was aired on ITV on Christmas Day.

In 1991, she reprised her role as Adela in a Channel 4 adaptation of The House of Bernarda Alba alongside Glenda Jackson, having originally played the character in a 1986 stage production at the Lyric Hammersmith.

She also starred as Nina in Chekhov’s The Seagull at the Barbican Theatre.

In 1993, Root played Hilda Maxwell in ITV period drama The Man Who Cried, opposite Ciarán Hinds.

The series, adapted from the novel by Catherine Cookson, received positive reviews and was watched by 12.7 million viewers.

In 1994, she appeared in BBC comedy drama series Love on a Branch Line as Miss Mounsey.

She is perhaps best known for her starring role as Anne Elliot in the 1995 BBC adaptation of Persuasion.

A familiar face on both stage and screen, she worked regularly with the Royal Shakespeare Company during her early career, performing as Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, and Lady Macbeth in Macbeth, among other roles.

It was broadcast on BBC Two in April 1995, and later gained a limited cinematic release in the United States, grossing over five million dollars.

Well received by critics, it went on to win five TV BAFTAs, including for Best Single Drama.

In 1996, she played Patricia “Pat” Green in Breaking the Code.

Root’s character was inspired by Bletchley code-breaker Joan Clarke, and starred Derek Jacobi as Alan Turing.

In 1998, Root starred in BBC crime drama Mortimer’s Law, as Rachel Mortimer, a barrister who relocates to rural Wales to take up a vacant coroner’s post.

The series ran for six episodes but was not recommissioned.

Root is also known for her television roles, including Dolly in Anna Karenina (2000), Mrs Davilow in Daniel Deronda (2002), and Winifred Dartie in The Forsyte Saga (2002−2003).

In 2000, she played Dolly in Anna Karenina, and later appeared as Mrs. Davilow in Daniel Deronda.

That same year, Root returned to the stage in Yasmina Reza’s Conversations After a Burial at the Almeida Theatre.

She also made guest appearances in various crime dramas, including A Touch of Frost, Foyle’s War, Waking the Dead, Poirot and Midsomer Murders.

In 2004, she appeared in ten episodes of period drama The Forsyte Saga as Winifred Dartie.

The following year, she featured in the docudrama Julian Fellowes Investigates, playing murder victim Vera Sidney.

In 2009, she was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for her performance as Sarah in Alan Ayckbourn's The Norman Conquests.

Her film roles include The Iron Lady (2011), Their Finest (2016), The Black Prince (2017) and Summerland (2020).

In 2018, she played Carol Finch in ITV crime drama Unforgotten (2018), and in 2023, she portrayed Sue Farquhar in BBC drama The Sixth Commandment (2023).

Root was born in Chelmsford, Essex, to Ken and Maureen Root.

Her father was an accountant, whilst her mother had performed in amateur dramatic productions as a child.

Both were supportive of her ambitions to become an actor.

She attended Philip Morant School in Colchester, studying drama at O Level; she joined the Essex Youth Theatre as a teenager.