Spotlight On – Felicity Jones

Every now and then I want to draw your attention to an up and coming actor so that if they ever get successful I can claim to have known all along. Today I bring you Birmingham’s own Felicity Jones who, after 14 years of working steadily onscreen, may well have her big break coming in 2010.

Jones’ first big TV role was as school bully Ethel Hallow in the children’s series The Worst Witch, followed a few years later by a co-starring role in BBC series Servants. After studying a degree in English at Oxford she went on to take the lead role in ITV’s Northanger Abbey and the short lived series Cape Wrath. Moving into the movie arena Jones took on small roles in Flashbacks of a Fool, Brideshead Revisited and Cheri, while continuing to appear on the small screen in The Diary of Anne Frank and Doctor Who. None of these films were very successful in the box office or critically well received so Felicity Jones remained mostly unheard of.

Alongside her work onscreen Jones was appearing onstage and since 1999 has played the role of Emma Grundy, now Emma Carter, in radio series The Archers so her lack of fame is not down to an absence of hard work. I really enjoy Felicity Jones, as you may have guessed by now, and she is often the only good aspect to a few otherwise horrible films. The reason I think 2010 is her year is Cemetery Junction, the new comedy drama, heavy on the drama, from Ricky Gervais and Steve Merchant where she plays the female lead. The trailer was recently released and coming from this duo is likely to be a success; hopefully also a launch pad for the young stars within. The recent adaptation of The Tempest starring Helen Mirren, and Felicity Jones as Miranda, would have also been a good breakthrough film but for the fact that it was produced by the recently deceased Miramax, so its future remains in the balance.

I believe that Jones is an engaging, and not unattractive, young actor with a hopefully successful career to come. Look out for Felicity Jones in the future as she may well be the next big thing, and if she is, don’t forget I told you so.