As yet another episode of ever popular 'Lark Rise to Candleford' airs tonight, it appears an appropriate moment to examine the career of actress Julia Sawalha. As postmistress Dorcas Lane, she has produced her own band of followers, yet she has assumed numerous other roles of literary consequence. Her first notable role was that of Mercy Pecksniff, in an adaptation of Dickens' picaresque novel 'Martin Chuzzlewit', a work which he proclaimed to be his best.
She followed this success with arguably her most well-known role, that of Lydia Bennet in the phenomenon that was the BBC's 'Pride and Prejudice'. Starring alongside Colin Firth, she played the youngest of Austen's Bennet sisters, who eloped with the dashing Captain Wickham. Most recently, she appeared in Elizabeth Gaskell's 'Cranford' as Jessie Brown, daughter of the railway entrepreneur. The drama, led by Dame Judi Dench, made its appearance just months before 'Lark Rise to Candleford', shot Sawalha to the level of screen recognition she enjoys today. And thus will she continue for many a year yet.
