Sylvestra Le Touzel

Sylvestra Le Touzel (born 1958) is an English actress. Known for her character work across television, radio, film, and theatre, she began her career as a child actor before moving into adult roles. She is married to actor Owen Teale, with whom she has two children.

Le Touzel began her career at the age of ten, playing a child who bedevils the Second Doctor in the 1968 Doctor Who story The Mind Robber. She later starred on the BBC's "Look and Read", appearing as Helen in their 1971 serial The Boy from Space. An early adult role was her portrayal of Fanny Price in the BBC dramatisation of Jane Austen's Mansfield Park (1983). In 1985, Le Touzel co-starred with Bryan Pringle in a television advertisement for Heineken. A parody of the "Rain in Spain" scene from My Fair Lady, it saw Pringle's character teaching a posh woman (Le Touzel) how to speak cockney by repeating: "The wa'er in Major'a don' taste like wot id ough' 'a" ("The water in Majorca don't taste like what it ought to"). The advert subsequently placed at number 29 on Channel 4's rundown of the "100 Greatest TV Ads".

Le Touzel appeared in various television productions throughout the 1990s, including the police procedural Between the Lines (1994), an adaptation of Catherine Cookson's The Gambling Man (1995), and the science fiction miniseries The Uninvited (1997). She went on to star as veterinarian Briony on the BBC One sitcom Beast (2000–2001), which ran for two series. Later credits included prominent roles in the Victoria Wood television film Housewife, 49 (2004), political drama series The Amazing Mrs Pritchard (2006), an adaptation of Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey (2007), the ITV comedy-drama series Bonkers (2007), the BBC Four film Margaret Thatcher: The Long Walk to Finchley (2008)—in which she portrayed Conservative politician Patricia Hornsby-Smith—and the four-part ITV/ABC miniseries Titanic (2012), where she played Lady Duff-Gordon, a survivor of the sinking of the Titanic. In addition, her work as D.C. Hazel Savage in the two-part television film Appropriate Adult (2011), a dramatisation of the crimes of Fred and Rose West, was described as "very authentic" by Variety and "remarkable" by the Los Angeles Times.

In 2017, Le Touzel appeared on the second season of Netflix's historical drama series The Crown, with The Telegraph describing her portrayal of Lady Dorothy Macmillan as "magnificent".[10] Between 2020 and 2023, she appeared as Christine Cranfield, a GCHQ boss, on the Sky One sitcom Intelligence. While the series was met with mixed reviews,[11] Le Touzel's work as the tightly-wound Cranfield was praised, with Collider commenting that she played the part to "perfection".[12]

After appearing in several short films, Le Touzel made her feature film debut in Michael Apted's Amazing Grace, a 2006 biographical drama about the abolition of the slave trade in 18th century England.[13] She then co-starred as Heather in Happy-Go-Lucky (2008), a partially improvised comedy-drama directed by Mike Leigh,[14] which The Hollywood Reporter called a "certified good time" with "wonderful performances from top to bottom".[15]

Following a small part in The Iron Lady (2011), Le Touzel played three different characters in Cloud Atlas (2012), a big-budget science fiction drama directed by the Wachowskis. Her next film roles were in Mr. Turner (2014)—a drama based on the life of J. M. W. Turner—and the 2017 political satire The Death of Stalin, where she portrayed Nina Khrushchev, the second wife of Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev.[16]

Le Touzel was born and raised in Kensington, London. She married Welsh actor Owen Teale in 2001, several years after they met during a production of Henry IV; the couple have two daughters.[17][18] Le Touzel is a supporter of charitable theatre and is a patron of Montage Theatre Arts, a performing arts charity based in London, along with fellow actresses Debby Bishop and Emma Thompson.[19]