Caroline Quentin

Early life

Quentin was born in Reigate, Surrey, to Kathleen and Fred Jones, a Royal Air Force pilot. She has three older sisters. She was educated at the independent Arts Educational School, in Tring, Hertfordshire, and appeared locally in the Pendley Open Air Shakespeare Festival.

Career

Quentin received an Ian Charleson Award commendation for her Masha in The Seagull at the Oxford Theatre Company in 1991. Her early stage work had also included appearing in the chorus of the original English production of the musical Les Misérables in 1985.

In July 1996, Quentin released a single, a cover of the Exciters' hit "Tell Him", with her Men Behaving Badly co-star Leslie Ash under the name of "Quentin and Ash". The single reached number 25 in the UK Singles Chart and spent 3 weeks in that listing. From 1997 until 2000 Quentin starred alongside Alan Davies in Jonathan Creek playing investigative journalist Maddie Magellan, who uses Jonathan's mind to solve murder mysteries.

Quentin appeared in the 2001 telefilm Hot Money, which was based on the true story of the theft of hundreds of thousands of pounds from the Bank of England. In 1998 she starred in the first sitcom that was specifically built around her: Kiss Me, Kate. At the British Comedy Awards in 2004, Quentin won the "Best Comedy Actress" award for her performance in Von Trapped; that year she started the major role of Maggie Mee in the popular drama Life Begins, which returned for a third series in 2006.

ITV has produced five series of the police drama Blue Murder, in which Quentin plays against type in the main role DCI Janine Lewis. The pilot aired in the UK on 18 May 2003.

Quentin has appeared in Whose Line Is It Anyway?; in a pre-Men Behaving Badly role as a traffic warden in the Mr. Bean episode The Trouble with Mr. Bean in 1991; Room 101; Have I Got News for You; and the 2009–10 BBC comedy series Life of Riley, a sitcom about a dysfunctional blended family; and in the BBC Radio 4 improvisational comedy series The Masterson Inheritance and the popular BBC Radio 2 sitcom On the Blog.

On 11 January 2009, Quentin stated on the show Something for the Weekend that she would return to Jonathan Creek in the future if the offer came.

She appeared as Heather Babcock in an episode of Agatha Christie's Miss Marple, The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side, in 2010. Also in 2010 she started appearing in Marks and Spencer's revamped food range advertisements.

In March 2011, a documentary entitled Caroline Quentin: A Passage Through India aired on ITV in the UK. The documentary followed Quentin as she traveled from the North of India to the South.

Quentin presents Restoration Home on BBC Two. The programme looks into the history and families of the UK's derelict mansion houses which are being restored by their private owners.

In 2012 Quentin began working on another documentary series, Cornwall with Caroline Quentin, which shows her travelling across Cornwall. She returned to present a second series of the show in 2013.

In 2013, she hosted another documentary series, Caroline Quentin’s National Parks for one series.

In 2013, Quentin starred in the Comedy Central series Big Bad World where she played the role of Jan, the mother of the main character Ben (Blake Harrison).

In 2015, she played the role of Angela Sim in an episode of Doc Martin. She played the role of Mrs Bumble in Dickensian (2015–2016). In November 2016, she guest presented an episode of The One Show.

Personal life

Quentin was married to comic Paul Merton from 1990 until their 1998 divorce. She met Sam Farmer in 1999 on the set of Jonathan Creek, where he was a runner. They have two children, Emily Rose(born 1999) and William (born 2003). In 2006, she married Farmer in Tiverton, Devon. They lived briefly in Morebath Manor near the village of Morebath, Devon, close to Tiverton, before moving to a smaller farm nearby.

Quentin suffers from coeliac disease and is the current patron of Coeliac UK.

Quentin is also the current president of the charity, Campaign for National Parks.

Awards