Julia Sawalha

Since her TV debut aged 12 in 1981, Julia Sawalha has been a consistent presence on the British small screen. After a variety of small roles, she first shot to public attention in teen drama Press Gang, which ran from 1989 to 1993 and featured Dexter Fletcher, whom she dated off-screen. Her next role came in family comedy Second Thoughts and she then landed her best-known part - Saffron Monsoon in sitcom Absolutely Fabulous. Starring as the long-suffering daughter of Jennifer Saunders' character Edie from 1992 until 2005, Julia won the sympathies of the British audience. A diverse actress, she has also starred in Pride And Prejudice, voiced a character in Chicken Run, played Ioan Gruffudd's wife in Hornblower and replaced Caroline Quentin as Alan Davies' sidekick in Jonathan Creek. After a two-year break in 2005, Julia competed in a reality dog training show before returning to acting in the BBC costume dramas Cranford and Lark Rise To Candleford.