Zoe Telford

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Zoe Telford
Born1973 (age 50–51)[1][2]
Norwich, Norfolk, England[3]
Alma materItalia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts[4]
OccupationActress
Years active1993–present
Children2[3]
AwardsEdinburgh International Film Festival
Special Commendation
Greyhawk, 2014[5]

Zoe Telford is an English actress.

Early life and education[edit]

Telford was born in Norwich, England. She started training as a dancer at a very young age and continued until she was in her 20s.[6] She attended the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts.[4] Her first break was on the show The Bill, a police drama, in 1993.[3]

Career[edit]

After guesting in The Bill, Telford appeared as a guest on several British TV shows before her first major role in the mini-series The Last Train (1999). One of her first recognisable works was in the first season of Channel 4's Teachers (2001) in which she played Maggie, a police officer and girlfriend to the character Simon Casey, played by Andrew Lincoln.

In the TV movie Men Only (2001), she played Alice, a nurse who was gang-raped by a group of men known to her and with whom she had flirted, played by, among others, Stephen Moyer and Martin Freeman.[7] She played the social worker Christina Leith in Real Men (2003), a two part TV drama that tackled the subject of paedophilia.[8] Telford appeared as Eva Braun in the 2003 Emmy-nominated Hitler: The Rise of Evil opposite Robert Carlyle. The TV movie was broadcast in the US on CBS with some controversy as it reportedly "likened the nation's acceptance of the Bush administration's pre-emptive strike on Iraq to the climate of fear that allowed Hitler to prosper".[9] Her screen time was short since the film focused more on the events leading up to the Final Solution.[9]

In Agatha Christie's Poirot's Death on the Nile (2004), Telford played Rosalie Otterbourne, one of the cruise passengers alongside Emily Blunt, James Fox, and David Suchet. She played Alison Jackman, a young trainee at the fictional PR firm of Prentiss McCabe headed by Stephen Fry in the BBC's Absolute Power (2003–2005), and trauma doctor Jane Cameron in The Golden Hour (2005), a four part ITV miniseries.

In 2006 Telford played Emily Trefusis in Agatha Christie's Marple's The Sittaford Mystery, produced jointly by Granada and WGBH-Boston. The show was broadcast in the US as part of the PBS Mystery! anthology series and marked her first collaboration with Laurence Fox. She was also in three different movies in the same year: Beau Brummell: This Charming Man, The Painted Veil (starring Naomi Watts), and The Truth (starring Elizabeth McGovern). She played Abigail Thomas, Assistant Private Secretary (APS) to the Sovereign, in the eight episode ITV series The Palace (2008). The show was originally conceived as an answer to The West Wing but underwent several script changes and, according to Telford, "became a very different thing to what it originally started out as".[10] In 2008 she worked for the first time with Juliet Stevenson in the three part ITV series Place of Execution; the show was broadcast in the US in the following year as part of the PBS Mystery! anthology.

In 2009 Telford appeared in several other procedural drama shows including Law & Order: UK (2009), the second season of Criminal Justice (2009) where she played the defence barrister for Maxine Peake’s character Julie, and Collision (2009) which was broadcast in the US under the PBS Masterpiece Contemporary. In the same year she appeared as a freelance tabloid reporter in two episodes of the comedy series The Thick of It (2009). In 2010 she appeared in Foyle's War (2010), shown in the US under the PBS Mystery! series. She also appeared in Episodes 2 and 3 of the first season of the BBC's Sherlock (2010) as Sarah, a physician colleague and love interest of Dr. John Watson, played by her Men Only co-star Martin Freeman.[11] Telford's appearance as Freya Carlisle in Lewis (2011) reunited her with Juliet Stevenson and James Fox; while her appearance as Eva Storr in the BBC's Room at the Top (2012) reunited her with her Criminal Justice co-star Maxine Peake. She played the newly created character Claire Sutton, a policy adviser, in the 2013 remake of Yes, Prime Minister.[12]

Telford won a Special Commendation Award for her role in the film Greyhawk at the 2014 Edinburgh International Film Festival, where the film premiered. She plays Paula, a beleaguered housewife who helps Mal, a blind veteran, find his dog.[5]

She appeared in the Series 17 opening episodes of Silent Witness (2015) as DCI Jane de Freitas. Her role as Bella Cross, the daughter of one of the main suspects in the first season of Unforgotten (2015) reunited her with Nicola Walker, her former co-star in The Last Train. She played the tragic Clara Haber in the first season of National Geographic's Genius – Einstein (2017). She appeared in other British TV series including Death in Paradise (2018) as Michelle Devaux, a professional poker player, and Grantchester (2019) as Professor Jean Simms, Head of the Computing Department at the University of Cambridge, set in the 1950s. She played Sarah Bradford, the missing wife of DI David Bradford in the TV series London Kills (2019), produced by Acorn TV and acquired by the BBC for 2020 release in the UK.[13]

Personal life[edit]

Telford has a son (b. 2010 or 2011) and a daughter (b. 2015). She lives in Oxfordshire.[3]

Filmography[edit]

Year Title Role Notes
1993 The Bill Helen Shaw Episode: “Rainy Days and Mondays”
1995 Soldier Soldier Chloe Green Episode: “The Army Game”
1998 Peak Practice Sarah O'Shaughnessy Episode: “All Fall Down”
1998 Invasion: Earth Nurse Louise Reynolds 1 episode
1999 The Last Train Roe Germaine 6 episodes
2001 Teachers Maggie[14] 8 episodes
2001 Men Only Alice TV movie
2003 Real Men Christina Leith TV movie
2003 Hitler: The Rise of Evil Eva Braun TV film
2003-2005 Absolute Power Alison Jackman 12 episodes
2004 Born and Bred Rita Lennox Episode: “Thick As Thieves”
2004 Agatha Christie's Poirot: Death on the Nile Rosalie Otterbourne
2004 Cutting It Dulcima Goodrush 1 episode
2005 The Thick of It Marianne

Swift

1 episode
2005 Twisted Tales Davina Episode: “Txt Msg Rcvd”
2005 Match Point Samantha
2005 Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo Lily
2005 The Golden Hour Dr Jane Cameron 4 episodes
2006 The Truth Blossom
2006 Marple: The Sittaford Mystery Emily Trefusis
2006 Afterlife Ruth Episode: “Lullaby”
2006 The Painted Veil Leona
2007 The Waiting Room Jem
2008 The Palace Abigail Thomas 8 episodes
2008 Place of Execution Nicola Curry 3 episodes
2009 Law & Order: UK Sara Fraser Episode: “Honour Bound”
2009 Criminal Justice Anna Klein Series 2, 5 episodes
2009 Collision Sandra Rampton 3 episodes
2009 Beyond the Pole Melissa
2009 The Thick of It Marianne Swift 2 episodes
2010 Foyle's War Lucy Jones Episode: “Killing Time”
2010 Ashes to Ashes Louise Gardiner 1 episode
2010 Sherlock Dr Sarah Sawyer 2 episodes: “The Blind Banker” and “The Great Game”
2011 Lewis Freya Carlisle Episode: “Old, Unhappy, Far Off Things”
2012 Room at the Top Eva Storr TV movie
2013 Yes, Prime Minister Claire Sutton Series 1, 6 episodes
2013 Jo Christina Sittler Episode: “Opera”
2013 Love & Marriage Michelle Paradise Series 1, 6 episodes
2013 Greyhawk Paula
2015 Silent Witness DCI Jane De Freitas Episode: "Sniper's Nest" (2 parts)
2015 Unforgotten Bella Cross Series 1, 5 episodes
2017 Mass Effect: Andromeda Foster Addison Video game voice over
2017 Genius – Albert Einstein Clara Haber Series 1, Episodes 6 and 7
2018 Kiss Me First Tracey Episode: "You Can Never Go Home"
2018 Death in Paradise Melanie Devaux Series 7, episode 2 “The Stakes Are High”
2019 Grantchester Jean Simms Series 4, episode 3
2019 London Kills Sarah Bradford Series 2, episode 5
2022 Litvinenko Ingrid Campbell
2022 Brassic Mrs King Season 4, episode 6. Saint Erin (Murder Mystery)
2023 Vera Juliet Branagh (Vera's cousin) Series 12, Episode 4. ""The Darkest Evening" (Police Drama)

References[edit]

  1. ^ "One to watch". The Times. 22 November 2003. ...have become something of a stock-in-trade for the 30-year-old actress.
  2. ^ Imogen Fox (25 May 2008). "Zoe Telford". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 August 2019. ...I am 34 years old now...
  3. ^ a b c d Natalie Denton (6 July 2015). "Home is where the heart is". Norfolkmag. Retrieved 9 August 2019.
  4. ^ a b Emma Hartley (22 November 2003). "One to Watch". The Times. Retrieved 9 August 2019.
  5. ^ a b Leo Barraclough (27 June 2014). "Joanna Coates' 'Hide and Seek' Wins Prize for Best Brit Pic at Edinburgh". Variety. Retrieved 17 August 2019.
  6. ^ Jamie Lafferty (7 June 2008). "A piece of my mind: Zoe Telford, actress". The Herald. Glasgow. Retrieved 9 August 2019.
  7. ^ "Putting the brute in". The Observer. 27 May 2001. Retrieved 17 August 2019.
  8. ^ Kathryn Flett (15 March 2003). "Antisocial services". The Guardian. Retrieved 17 August 2019.
  9. ^ a b Michael Speier (11 May 2003). "Hitler: The Rise of Evil". Variety. Retrieved 17 August 2019.
  10. ^ Simon Reynolds (3 June 2008). "Zoe Telford ('The Waiting Room')". Digital Spy. Retrieved 17 August 2019.
  11. ^ David Butcher (3 August 2010). "Sherlock – brilliant but too short". Radio Times. Retrieved 9 August 2019.
  12. ^ Ian Burrell (12 September 2012). "Yes, Prime Minister – there is a new show in town to worry about". The Independent. Archived from the original on 7 May 2022. Retrieved 17 August 2019.
  13. ^ "BBC One Daytime confirms return of crime drama London Kills". BBC One. BBC. 15 August 2019. Retrieved 18 August 2019.
  14. ^ Cooke, Lez (18 October 2013). Style in British Television Drama. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 126–. ISBN 9781137265920. Retrieved 24 February 2014.

External links[edit]

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