Haydn Gwynne was born on 21 March 1957 in Hurstpierpoint, Sussex, to Rosamond (née Dobson) and Guy Thomas Haydn Gwynne (1915–1994).[1]
She played county level tennis before studying sociology at the University of Nottingham,[2] and was fluent in French and Italian. After university she took a five-year lectureship in Italy at the University of Rome La Sapienza, where she taught English as a foreign language.[3]
Career
Gwynne became an actor in her mid-twenties. One of her first television roles was as Cosima in the Lovejoy two-part special "Death and Venice" (1986).[4] She played feminist lecturer Dr Robyn Penrose in the BBC television mini-series dramatisation of David Lodge's Nice Work in 1989.[5]
Her first high-profile comedy role was as Alex Pates in Drop the Dead Donkey in 1990. She then appeared in the 1991 Children's ITV science-fiction series Time Riders and later became a regular in Peak Practice; first appearing at the start of series 7 (episode 1) in 1999 as Dr Joanna Graham. The character of Dr Graham was written out of the show at the end of series 9 (episode 13) when she was fatally shot whilst intervening in a conflict between a man and his daughter. After Peak Practice, Gwynne went on to star in Merseybeat in 2001.[6]
In 2002, she starred in the television drama for the BBC The Secret playing the character of Emma Faraday.[7]
She also performed in numerous productions for the Royal Shakespeare Company.[11] Her later television appearances were usually in shorter dramas, such as the role of Julius Caesar's wife, Calpurnia, in the TV series Rome. She also appeared in the first Christmas special episode of Midsomer Murders "Ghosts of Christmas Past" (2004) as Jennifer Carter.[12]
Gwynne guest-starred in an episode of Lewis in the first of a new series (2008). She appeared in the first episode of series 2, "And the Moonbeams Kiss the Sea", playing the character of Sandra Walters.[13][14] She guest starred in the BBC TV series Sherlock in the episode "The Great Game" (2010), as a museum curator, Miss Wenceslas. She appeared in the 2011 film Hunky Dory.[15]
In January 2014, Gwynne appeared in the episode "Fraternity" of the BBC forensic science series Silent Witness,[24] followed by appearances in another two BBC series in February: the British sitcom Uncle and the crime comedy-drama Death in Paradise (Series 3, Episode 5).[25] In 2015, she appeared in the BBC Father Brown episode, "The Last Man".[26]
In 2023, Gwynne starred as Pam Lee, a version of the real-life judge Prue Leith, in The Great British Bake Off Musical,[30] and as Stanley Baldwin in Jack Thorne's play When Winston Went to War With the Wireless at the Donmar Warehouse.[31]
In 2022, she performed "The Ladies Who Lunch" in a gala tribute to Stephen Sondheim, Old Friends.[32] She was forced to withdraw from the subsequent run of the show, a few days before its opening, in September 2023. At that stage, her withdrawal was attributed to "sudden personal circumstances".[33]