Jenny Funnell

Jenny Victoria Funnell (born 20 May 1963) is a British actress best known for her role as Sandy in the long-running British sitcom As Time Goes By from 1992 to 2005.

Jenny Funnell
Born (1963-05-20) 20 May 1963
Nairobi, Kenya
OccupationActress
Years active1985–present
SpouseSam Dale
Children1[1]

Early life

Funnell was born in Kenya and has a twin sister. She moved to the UK when she was four years old, and attended the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art[2] She initially started voice acting in radio drama while still a student at drama school, winning the Carleton Hobbs BBC Radio Drama Award in 1984.

Career

Her earliest television work was also in the British soap opera Brookside (1985), the police series Bergerac (BBC 1988), and the episode "Peril at End House" in Series 2 of Agatha Christie's Poirot (ITV 1990).

Funnell started taking on comedy parts with an appearance in the comedy/drama Boon (ITV 1989), and a role in the television movie Norbert Smith: A Life. Other comedy roles for TV have included a guest appearance in the Channel 4 newsroom sitcom Drop the Dead Donkey (1994) and the romantic comedy Love Soup (2005).

Between 1992 and 2005, Funnell appeared in 58 episodes of the popular BBC sitcom As Time Goes By, in the role of 'Sandy' alongside Judi Dench and Geoffrey Palmer. The show lasted for nine series and was aired on BBC One.

She later made guest appearances in the ITV hospital drama The Royal (2003), played two separate parts in the BBC's medical drama Doctors (2002 and 2004), and appeared in the ITV police series The Bill (2006).

Since 2009, she has voiced nine different characters in the FromSoftware series Dark Souls and Bloodborne.

Funnell is the voice of optical retail chain, Specsavers.

Her stage roles have included Sense and Sensibility at the Watermill Theatre, Bagnor, West Berkshire[3] in April 2014, What the Butler Saw at The Haymarket Theatre in Basingstoke during September 2015,[4] and A Murder Is Announced, which toured around the United Kingdom throughout 2019. Funnell was part of the original West-End cast of Michael Grandage's Hamlet, which starred Jude Law in the titular role. The production opened at the Donmar Warehouse in 2009. It then went to Denmark, performing in the gothic setting of Kronborg Castle, Shakespeare's inspiration for his fictionalised Elsinore, before finally transferring to the Broadhurst Theatre, on Broadway, in August 2009.[5]

Personal life

Funnell and her husband, also an actor, live near Brighton in England. The couple have a daughter, who is also an actress.[6][7]

Filmography

YearTV Series/Film NameRoleRole Notes
1985Brookside
1985Bergerac
1989Norbert Smith: A Life
1990Agatha Christie's PoirotNurseSeries 2 Episode 1 "Peril at End House"
1992–2005As Time Goes BySandyOne of the main roles. Film credit.
1994Drop the Dead DonkeyGuest Appearance
1999 Monster TV Linda Dodds Main character, 26 episodes
2002, 2004, 2011Doctors3 separate episodes.
2003The RoyalAnna Freeman
2005Love SoupPhilippaGuest Appearance
2006The BillStephanie Taylor
2008Coming of AgeChloe Wheeler's mother
2009Demon's SoulsYuria the Witch
2011Dark SoulsQuelana of Izalith, Darkmoon Knightess
2014HollyoaksReceptionist
2015BloodborneVileblood Queen Annalise, Doctor Iosefka
2016Dark Souls IIIKarla
2020 House Hack Paulie Film, supporting character
2021 Everything I Know About Love Lesley 1 episode

References

  1. "Jenny Funnell on PBS". Atgbcentral.com. Archived from the original on 11 July 2012. Retrieved 28 October 2013.
  2. Category:Alumni of the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art
  3. "REVIEW: Sense and Sensibility, The Watermill Theatre, Bagnor". Basingstoke Gazette. 9 April 2014.
  4. "Actress Jenny Funnell talks about starring in "riotous farce" 'What the Butler Saw', which is coming to Basingstoke" Basingstoke Gazette, 4 September 2015
  5. "Jude Law Opens in Hamlet". Broadway.com. Retrieved 25 February 2022.
  6. Vanessa (23 June 2007). "POP GOES THE WORLD: A night with Moira Brooker". Pop-goes-the-world.blogspot.com. Retrieved 23 July 2012.
  7. "Ella Funnell-Dale". IMDb. Retrieved 25 February 2022.
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