NICOLA WALKER is a goddess!

She has a way of breaking up sentences that bothers me sometimes. Do you know what I mean, OP? It's like a stutter, but between words. I presume she doesn't do it on stage.

I first noticed her in a mystery series call Touching Evil from the late 1990s. She played a detective along with Robson Green. She was very good. Excellent TV series by the way.

I've started watching LAST TANGO. She is fantastic, as is Sarah Lancashire.

She projects such warmth in her eyes.

Walker was pretty decent in the mini-series River (2015) with Stellan Skarsgård.

Agreed, r1. Always swallowing her words.

Agree that she's fantastic in anything she does. Also, looks-wise and talent-wise, she reminds me of american actor Laurie Metcalf (although Walker has gotten pithier and more complex parts). Love them both.

I was going to say "River" also. I believe it's on Netflix.

She was also in MI-5 (Spooks in the UK) for several seasons.

The UK is also getting ready to broadcast Series 2 of "The Split." This is a good one to watch because she plays a lawyer and so they dress her up really well. She usually plays the dowdy and book worm characters, but here they actually clean her up quite well. And it's worth watching just for the charismatic Barry Atsma.

I've always thought that she should do one of those period dramas like Downton Abbey or Cranford. I think she would fit right in as the cook downstairs or the spinster aunt/closet lesbian upstairs.

Here's a trailer for The Split. You can see she's well dressed.

All the Frau fans of Spooks came because of her slow burn romance with the Peter Firth character. She named her son Harry after him.

[quote]All the Frau fans of Spooks came because of her slow burn romance with the Peter Firth character.

Her exit from the show was so well done. When I saw it, I thought "Damn, that's a good story runner."

I get her and Olivia Colman mixed up, even though I'm one of the Frauen who loved "MI-5."

Peter Firth has major charisma in Spooks. His relationship with Ruth came out of left field.

I loved her in River and also Unforgotten. Both excellent shows all round.

R1 Anna Maxwell Martin, another Brit actor, loves to break up her words as well, very distracting. Maybe it's a British way of acting to heighten emotions??? Hugh Grant and Colin Firth also do it a lot.

Is Spooks currently available on US TV?

R17, Amazon has it. In the US is is called MI-5.

Ah, thanks, r18.

She was a guest star on Scott & Bailey (police detective show). Stayed up all night to watch the whole season, it was so good.

Hulu has the first seasons. The title says MI-5 but the photo has the title Spooks.

How great that in the UK these wonderful actors can move from series to series and not get overexposed because the series don't go on forever and jump the shark.

True, r22. The six-episode format is better because the story doesn't get dragged out and unnecessary sub-plots added. It's a good way to do a series, and the viewer doesn't get bored.

[quote] Is Spooks currently available on US TV?

Move to the DC area. We have WETA-UK, a 24/7 British TV station - sister to our local PBS WETA channel.. MI-5 on Mon-Fri. When they get through all 10 seasons they start all over again. Almost all the shows mentioned are or have been on it on it. MI-5's first season had 6 episodes. All the rest had 10.

I hated hated her final appearance on MI-5. I did love how she came back after her first disappearance. Great episode.

The new series are shown on the regular PBS station - Last Tango in Halifax, e.g.

Walker is married to hunk-a-licious Barnaby Kay, also an actor. But no where near as good as his missus.

MI-5 (Spooks) also has the delectable Raza Jaffrey (rowr!!). And if you like pasty white boys Rupert Penry-Jones and Richard Armitage. They didn't skimp on the eye candy in that show.

I haven't gotten around to watching Spooks yet. Is it as good as Unforgotten? I really liked that one.

UNFORGOTTEN is admittedly formulaic but the performances are absolutely brilliant and make the show.

One thing I've noticed about British tv shows is that many of the actresses have voices that sound like they smoke like chimneys.

I don't really think of her as an actress as much as a personality. In every role I've seen her in, she brings the same stuttering vocal tick, as has been mentioned upthread, the same half smile, the same body language. Watch her in interviews on Good Morning Britain. It's all there on display. I liked her the first couple of times I saw her. Then I got bored with the shtick. I can't say I need to see her in anything else.

[quote]I haven't gotten around to watching Spooks yet. Is it as good as Unforgotten? I really liked that one.

Spooks is a bit different. MI-5 is the British version of the American CIA. So it's more "espionage" themed. It's a bit more involved so you have to pay attention, it's not a show to have running in the background. Certain seasons are very strong with excellent storylines. And then there were one or two seasons which were a bit weak. But the theme of the show runs on a more international level, so you get dialogue like "The Americans are doing this" and "Over in the Middle East this is happening."

Sorry, R25, that is absolutely not a hunk. at all. He's pretty much forgettable as an actor so far from what I've seen.

Spooks aka MI-5 is a great show. Personally I prefer when they have shows about internal issues and affairs which is what MI-5 is supposed to be about - MI-6 handles extra-country matters while MI-5 handles security issues within the UK though sometimes the edges blur.

Spooks is nothing like Unforgotten. It’s quite pulpy, kind of like 24. Matthew McFadyen, David Oyelowo and Keeley Hawes had their breakout roles as the original main characters, but Raza Jaffrey, Rupert Penry-Jones and Nicola were just as good.

She had great chemistry with Peter Firth.

Keeley Hawes must be the only British actress who appears in more TV programs than Nicola Walker. And then there's Sarah Lancashire.

I love them all. Oh, and Anne Reid, too.

R34 Sheridan Smith?

Tangentially: Another great show is The Hour. Dominic West, Romala Gari, Anna Chancellor, Ben Whishaw, Peter Capaldi. All of them great, but Whishaw Owns this show. Highly recommended. Also, anything with Robson Green in it....

The British do crime dramas so well.

I loved her in Last Tango and The Split. She does have a peculiar affectation when beginning to speak, but I rather like it.

What about The River, with her and Stellan Skaarsgard? Worth watching?

R39, I just finished watching River on Netflix. The first episode was a little hard to get into, but by the end of it I was deep in binge-mode. It's really good.

Just binged The Split. Well written, competently acted. Though Walker's set method for expressing exasperation is a bit much. However, greatly mitigated by the delicious Barry Atsma.

[quote][R34] Sheridan Smith?

And Maxine Peake!

R34 Don’t forget Suranne Jones!

And Sarah Lancashire and Anna Friel!

She was so good in her mini-arc on Scott and Bailey. I agree she's no chameleon, but her face is remarkably expressive. She reminds me in a weird way of Annette Bening, another actress whose mannerisms seldom change.

I found the first episode of River a slog, but now I'm thinking I should give it another chance.

Just finished River on Netflix and loved it. It does start off slow, but it's well worth the investment as the story picks up. The end of the final episode had me in tears, it was the perfect ending. Nicola Walker and Stellan Skaarsgard were brilliant in this.

R34 and Indira Varma!

She is a brilliant actor. Reminds me a bit of Laurie Metcalf (there's even a physical resemblance)....

I just saw her in the split. will there be a season 3?

I love the way she talks. Very intimate and vulnerable. As interesting as Laurie Metcalf, as mentioned a couple of times by other posters. I would love to see Walker in something with Jessica Hynes.

A third and final series of The Split was announced yesterday.

The 4th series of Unforgotten is due to be shown soon. Filming was disrupted last year. Dame Sheila Hancock and Susan Lynch are two of the big names in the cast.

Walker would also be great in a scene with Julie Walters.

I wondered why Gillian was always getting so many guys in Halifax but a few episodes in, I got it.

Oh, her storyline in Scott & Bailey was riveting. The second time she played a lesbian.

[quote] A third and final series of The Split was announced yesterday.

This show really only needed one season. It fails because it focuses more on the boring personal lives of these people and not on the interesting clients they represent.

I got sucked into this series somehow...the acting was good, i even shed a tear (mary!). I didn't think I would even watch a whole season, just a few episodes perhaps but I binged on 2 seasons this past weekend.

It's refreshing to see the actors in the UK with natural faces...not frozen ones.

Series 4 of Unforgotten (Un4gotten) starts on 22nd February

Thanks, R55. I double checked my DVR to make sure it would be recorded.

First episode very good.

My experience of tattoos is that they're generally confined to the lower echelons, so it's not surprising the victim lost his head.

Everybody hides away.

Nicola Walker has a new show coming out, and she's determined not to be typecast, so after playing police officers in River, Unforgotten, Prisoner's Wives and A Mother's Son, she's now playing another police officer!

R51's picture reminded me of how much I dislike looking at Stephen Mangan, and he's in everything these days. He doesn't look that bad there, since he's got a reasonable, adult hairstyle for a change, but there's nothing to be done about his hangdog face .

I am so tired of her gulping and staring and her swallowing her lines.

In the last wet season of Unforgotten my favourite single single line was after Type A lezzie police chief Susan Lynch complained to her mother that she “never tried to help people, never tried to make the world a better place”, the crotchety old bitch played by Sheila Hancock snipes, “You’re beginning to sound like a Michael Jackson song”. Loved it!

Sang “Can’t Smile Without You” in 4 Weddings & A Funeral.

She's very good. But she lacks just that extra bit of charisma or beauty that might have made her more of a star and less of an actor somewhere between character and top tier lead.

By the way, you can catch her in her very early years in Four Weddings and a Funeral as part of the guitar duo singing the interminable "Can't Be Without You" at the first wedding with Rowan Atkinson as the officiant.

The final series of The Split starts LITERALLY IMMINENTLY