Angela Thorne

Early life

Angela Thorne was born in Karachi, British India, in 1939. The daughter of an Indian Army doctor father, William Herbert Alfred Thorne, and a teacher mother, Sylvia (Leslie), she spent the first five years of her life in India.  She was later a pupil at Farlington School in Horsham, West Sussex. She trained for the stage at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Her marriage to television actor Peter Penry-Jones lasted from 22 September 1967 until his death in 2009. They had two sons, Laurence and Rupert, both actors.

In the BBC programme Who Do You Think You Are? featuring son Rupert, broadcast in August 2010, it was revealed that Thorne's father William had served with the Indian Medical Corps at the Battle of Monte Cassino and that his preceding ancestors had a long-standing connection with the Indian Army.

Acting career

Her first professional engagement was with the Caryl Jenner Children's Theatre. After repertory seasons at York and Sheffield, she appeared in Night Must Fall at Theatre Royal, Windsor and the Haymarket Theatre. She also appeared in television productions, including Elizabeth R as Lettice Knollys, The Liars, and The Canterville Ghost, playing the leading role opposite Bruce Forsyth as the Ghost. She played the part of Margaret Thatcher to critical acclaim in the satirical, comic farce Anyone for Denis?, adapted for television in 1982.

In 1984 she played the role of Susan, "The Duchess" in a West End revival of Giles Cooper's play Happy Family, opposite Ian Ogilvy and Stephanie Beacham. In 1996 she starred in Alan Ayckbourn's Communicating Doors at the Savoy Theatre, London

She appeared in two episodes of Thames Television's sitcom Get Some In! in 1976 as Mrs Fairfax, and in one episode of the BBC sitcom The Good Life in 1977 as Lady Truscott, before appearing as Marjory Frobisher in To the Manor Born between 1979 and 1981: her husband appeared in two of the later episodes. She reprised this role for both the 10-episode radio series in 1997 and the one-off 2007 Christmas Special on television. She followed this with a lead role in another sitcom, Three Up, Two Down. After To the Manor Born, she also played the eponymous character in the ITV sitcom Farrington of the F.O. written by Dick Sharples.

She appeared in an episode of Midsomer Murders as well as Foyle's War. In 1989, she voiced the role of Elizabeth II in The BFG, the film adaptation of Roald Dahl's book.