
Acting
Penny Downie
Born 1954-01-01 · Queensland, Australia
Penny Downie is an Australian actress known for her stage and television appearances in the United Kingdom. From 2017 until 2021 she played Ellen in the British TV sitcom Back. She plays the US ambassador’s house manager Frances Munning in the 2023 Netflix political thriller series The Diplomat.
Acting credits
6.2In London for the Prime Minister's funeral, Mike Banning discovers a plot to assassinate all the attending world leaders.
London Has Fallen
2016
7.2Newly elected President Nelson Mandela knows his nation remains racially and economically divided in the wake of apartheid. Believing he can bring his people together through the universal language of sport, Mandela rallies South Africa's rugby union team as they make their historic run to the 1995 Rugby World Cup Championship match.
Invictus
2009
7.4Based on the true story of Robin, a handsome, brilliant and adventurous man whose life takes a dramatic turn when polio leaves him paralyzed.
Breathe
2017
6.5An account of the days of First Lady, Jacqueline Kennedy, in the immediate aftermath of John F. Kennedy's assassination in 1963.
Jackie
2016
6.3In 1998, an auction of the estate of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor causes great excitement. For one woman, Wally Winthrop, it has much more meaning. Wally becomes obsessed by their historic love story. As she learns more about the sacrifices involved, Wally gains her own courage to find happiness.
W.E.
2011
6.3In early 20th century New York City, an impoverished socialite desperately seeks a suitable husband as she gradually finds herself betrayed by her friends and exiled from high society.
The House of Mirth
2000
7.9Television drama based on the novel by Elizabeth Jane Howard. Author Daisy Langrish buys a tranquil country cottage as a bolt-hole from the pressures of her busy London life, but doesn't expect her new home to come complete with a would-be suitor. The day she moves in, local gardener Henry Kent is immediately on hand to help and offer his friendship, but are his intentions sinister?
Falling
2005
7.0Lawrence, an aging, lonely civil servant falls for Gina, an enigmatic young woman. When he takes her to the G8 Summit in Reykjavik, however, their bond is tested by Lawrence's professional obligations.
The Girl in the Café
2005
6.4The corpse of a shabbily dressed young woman has been discovered in the mud flats of the Thames at low tide. Police assume she's a prostitute, but Dr. Watson suspects something more and goes to his old friend Holmes, now retired and at very loose ends.
Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Silk Stocking
2004
NRWhen her mother suddenly dies, Sonja is thrown into tumult. Dealing with early-twenties existential angst and a sense of responsibility for her teenage younger sister Emma, she has a lot on her plate. Suddenly under the care of her controlling grandma and—as a young woman living with Down syndrome—constantly faced with a society that judges what she’s capable of, Sonja is desperate to be herself and take charge of her own life. When a chance encounter with the charismatic Hakim leads her to a krump class, Sonja discovers a life-changing outlet for expression.
Boss Cat
2026
7.3David Tennant stars in a film of the Royal Shakespeare Company's award-winning production of Shakespeare's great play. Director Gregory Doran's modern-dress production was hailed by the critics as thrilling, fast-moving and, in parts, very funny.
Hamlet
2009
6.5Former student Raskolnikov is pushed to murder when struggling to pay the rent on his apartment. When the murder is being investigated by the police, Raskolnikov struggles between trying to hide his guilt and the pressure to confess.
Crime and Punishment
1998
5.6A young knight sets out to join King Richards crusaders. Along the way, he encounters The Black Prince who captures children and sells them as slaves to the Muslims. It is Robert Narra's sworn duty to protect the children and lead them to safety.
Lionheart
1987
6.0The mysterious death of an enigmatic young man newly arrived in the suburb of Wetherby releases the long-repressed, dark passions of some of its residents.
Wetherby
1985
5.3A computer genius is confined to a penthouse after a car accident, with only a nurse to look after him. But the advanced computer systems designed to make his life easier appear to be taking control.
Crosstalk
1982
6.5Deric Longden and his wife, Aileen, come to terms with the fact that his mother, Annie, is getting too old to live on her own. Annie suffers her first stroke and a nursing home is the obvious solution, but which one and where?
Lost for Words
1999
4.8Life and adventures of lord George Gordon Byron. BBC dramatization of the poet's final thirteen years
Byron
2003
4.0A group of ex-university students reunite to perform a Shakespeare play in a quaint English village.
Food of Love
1997
7.0Cicero, the future Consul of Rome, is just starting out as a trial lawyer in crime-ridden Rome where assassinations for political advantage and for estate grabbing had become de rigueur. The matriarch of a prominent family hires him to defend a relative on a charge of patricide. He faces one of the shrewdest criminal trial prosecutors in the Republic who is backed by powerful political forces with motives to see that his client is convicted and executed in one of the most horrible manners possible.
Murder in Rome
2005
NRWhat happens when you pick up a hitchhiker? Michael, an American scriptwriter, soon finds out when he picks up an Englishman in the middle of a Transylvanian forest. Touchstone - in fact the ghost of a former court jester - places him in some unimaginable situations of life and death. Despite being a firm believer in non-violence, Michael is forced to become a cold-blooded serial killer.
The Jester from Transylvania
2024
NRA father can't afford to take his family on holiday so he forces them to spend a week in their basement. He sets up lounge chairs and paints palm trees on the walls. At one point the family hears a burglar upstairs but the father refuses to allow them to investigate as they are supposed to be away at a resort.
Paradise
1994
10.0Griff Rhys Jones stars as a writer on a popular television soap opera who falls in love with the show's leading lady but finds himself unable to break his ties with his ex-wife and their children.
Ex
1991
8.0Documentary about the life of the Bonzo Dog Band singer.
Vivian Stanshall: The Canyons of his Mind
2003