Joanne Howarth

Originally from Manchester Joanne grew up in South London, her father the sales rep for a Lancashire cotton mill and her mother a classroom assistant. Youth theatre gave her the dream to act professionally, and after training at Rose Bruford College (the year after Gary Oldman) she has worked regularly in the foremost British theatre companies, with eminent actors and directors including Sam Mendes, John Lithgow, Glenda Jackson, Patrick Stewart, David Bradley, Rik Mayall and Hugh Bonneville. In the USA she returned to her Welsh roots playing the matriarch in The Pull of Negative Gravity Off-Broadway. On screen, after a season in Grange Hill and rising from Police Constable to Inspector in Eastenders, her highlights have been Kenneth Branagh consoling her on the murder of her parents in 'Wallander' and throwing a party in 'It's a Sin'.