Lesley Manville

Lesley Manville is from Brighton, England and has won many awards for stage and screen. She has worked a lot with the brilliant director Mike Leigh, who loves working with her, because she is such a good actor. She has twice been named The British Actor of the Year, both times for parts in Leigh’s films. She was in his films, All or Nothing, (2002), and Another Year, (2010), with Judi Dench. She has also been in lots of other director’s movies. In Mike Newell’s Dance With a Stranger, (1985), and Stephen Frears’s Sammy and Rosie Get Laid, (1987), and more recently Maleficent, (2014), with Angelina Jolie.

She has been on the West End stage many times. She won The Olivier Award for Best Actress for her starring part in Ibsen’s play Ghosts in which she was, quite simply, genius!

Lesley Manville is a very, very fine actor. Just before Molly Moon was made she was in ‘Ghosts’ a play by Ibsen. She was so good in this that people were in tears at the end. Her part was very different to the part of Miss Adderstone as Miss Adderstone is such a mean, spiteful woman. But Lesley plays Miss Adderstone brilliantly. Being so believably nasty that I’m sure she will appear in some children’s nightmares!