Geraldine Somerville

Early life

Geraldine Agnew-Somerville was born in County Meath, Ireland, the daughter of Sir Quentin Charles Agnew-Somerville, 2nd Baronet, and Margaret April Irene, Lady Agnew-Somerville (née Drummond), an antiques dealer, but was brought up on the Isle of Man. Her mother is a daughter of John Drummond, 15th Baron Strange, and sister of the late Cherry Drummond, 16th Baroness Strange.

She has an elder sister, Amelia Rachel (who owns and works in a restaurant with her husband in the Australian rainforest), and a younger brother, James Lockett Charles Agnew-Somerville, who worked in Hong Kong and writes poetry. Somerville attended dance classes from the age of six, and at eight was sent to the Arts Educational School, a boarding school in Tring, Hertfordshire, where she was taught ballet, music and drama. She left at sixteen, but continued her studies in London.

Career

Somerville trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and graduated in 1989. She did stage work and appeared on TV in episodes of Agatha Christie's Poirot and Casualty (1993) before landing the role of Penhaligon in Cracker, which she held from the show's inception in 1993 until its demise in 1995 and became one of the most memorable characters of the series.

Somerville played Lady Stockbridge in Julian Fellowes's Gosford Park and Harry Potter's mother Lily in all the Potter movies. In May 2007, she played author Daphne du Maurier in the BBC TV drama Daphne. She plays a leading role as fictional Louisa, Countess of Manton in the 2012 ITV mini-series Titanic.

In 2014 she played Princess Antoinette of Monaco in the film Grace of Monaco. In 2014, Somerville played Sarah Griffin in the BBC One mini-series Quirke.