Pam Ferris Biography

Pamela E. "Pam" Ferris (born 11 May 1948) is a British actress. She starred on television as Ma Larkin in The Darling Buds of May, and as Laura Thyme in Rosemary & Thyme, and has played parts in family films based on works by British authors as Miss Trunchbull in Matilda and as Aunt Marge in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

Personal life

Ferris was born in Hanover, Lower Saxony, Germany, to Welsh parents, while her father was serving in the Royal Air Force. Ferris spent her childhood in the Aberkenfig area, near Bridgend in Wales. Her father, Fred Ferris, was a policeman, and her mother, Ann Perkins, worked in her family's bakery business. Her family emigrated to New Zealand when she was thirteen. Ferris returned to the UK in her early twenties. In 1986, she married actor Roger Frost.

Career

Ferris performed in her younger years at the Mercury Theatre in Auckland, and later with various regional companies in the UK.

Ferris played motherly Ma Larkin in the ITV series The Darling Buds of May, which ran from 1991 to 1993. She has also acted in a succession of television dramas, including: Meantime, in which she played the Cockney mother of Phil Daniels and Tim Roth, Connie, Hardwicke House, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, Where the Heart Is and Paradise Heights. From 2003 to 2006, she played the gardening sleuth, Laura Thyme, in Rosemary & Thyme.

Her roles in costume dramas include parts in television adaptations of Middlemarch, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Our Mutual Friend, The Turn of the Screw, Pollyanna and Jane Eyre.

Ferris portrayed the horrid school headmistress Miss Agatha Trunchbull in Matilda. Additionally, she played the nasty Aunt Marge in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and Miriam, a motherly activist in Children of Men, both of which were directed by Alfonso Cuarón.

She has also acted in productions for BBC Radio 4.

Her career in the theatre has included parts in Royal Court Theatre and National Theatre productions. In 2007 she played Phoebe Rice in an acclaimed revival of John Osborne's The Entertainer at London's Old Vic Theatre.

In 2007 Ferris took part in the BBC Wales programme Coming Home about her Welsh family history.

In 2008 she played Mrs General in an all-star cast BBC adaptation of the Charles Dickens novel Little Dorrit. In 2009 she appeared in the final series of the BBC comedy Gavin and Stacey. In 2010 she made a guest appearance in the sitcom Grandma's House.

In 2012, Ferris began playing the part of Sister Evangelina in the series Call the Midwife.

Filmography

Television series

• Connie (1985)
• Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit (1990)
• Cluedo (1990)(1992)
• The Darling Buds of May (1991"1993)
• Middlemarch (1994)
• The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1996)
• Where the Heart Is (1997"2000)
• Our Mutual Friend (1998)
• The Turn of the Screw (1999)
• Clocking Off (2003)
• Pollyanna (2003)
• Rosemary & Thyme (2003"2006)
• Marple: What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw (2004)
• Jane Eyre (2006)
• Little Dorrit (2008)
• Gavin & Stacey (2009)
• Midsomer Murders - Echoes of the Dead (2011)
• Luther (2011)
• Call the Midwife (2012-present)

Films

• Meantime (1983)
• Matilda (1996) - Principal Agatha Trunchbull
• The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (2001)
• Death to Smoochy (2002)
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)
• Children of Men (2006)
• Nativity! (2009)
• Telstar (2009)
• Malice in Wonderland (2009)
• The Raven (2012)
• Nativity 2: Danger in the Manger (2012)
• Saving Santa (2013)