Susan Porrett has had a long theatrical career. She played Audrey in As You Like It at Nottingham Playhouse, Ursula in Much Ado About Nothing at the National Theatre and Second Witch in Macbeth and Queen Caroline in The Art of Success (both for the RSC). In 2004 she went to the Hong Kong Festival to play the Nurse in Romeo and Juliet for English Touring Theatre and later appeared in The Good Soul of Szechuan at the Young Vic. Favourite parts include Miss Pross in A Tale of Two Cities, Betsy Trotwood in David Copperfield (both at Greenwich Theatre) and Matron in Forty Years On (at West Yorkshire Playhouse). Most recent stage appearances: The Heresy of Love (Shakespeare’s Globe, 2015), The Autumn Garden by Lillian Hellman (Jermyn Street Theatre, October 2016) and The Slaves of Solitude at Hampstead Theatre (October-November 2017). Films include Alan Bennett’s A Private Function, in which she played butcher’s wife, Mrs. Medcalf. Her many television credits include: Upstairs, Downstairs (as underhousemaid Alice); three series of Grange Hill (as Mrs.Thomas, the biology teacher) and playing Doris in Absolute Hell with Judi Dench. Her most recent tv appearance was as Withers in the BBC series Mapp and Lucia. Radio work in 2017: BBC Radio 4’s Home Front series.