Here's a few of my more interesting roles so far, some pretty major and some decidedly minor, but they're the parts I've enjoyed playing the most. You know, witches and vampires and, well, crazy people. I do like to play crazy people. Just as well, I keep being cast that way. Hmmm! Do you think they're trying to tell me something? FEATURE FILMS The Vampires of Bloody Island Harry Potter and The Philosophers Stone Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Shaun of the Dead The Phantom of the Opera Spy Game TELEVISION Nevermind The Buzzcocks Blunder Dream Team The Doctor Returns (television pilot) IN PRE-PRODUCTION Vampire Bites THE VAMPIRES OF BLOODY ISLAND (2009. Feature film. Director: My lovely husband Allin Kempthorne) WATCH THE TRAILER: It's always fantastic of course to play the lead role, but not only was I the lead role in this film, I was also the 2nd lead too. The miracles of playing a mother and daughter, and the mother figure being such a deliciously nasty vampire character too! Plenty to get my fangs into here. Well, the role was written especially for me after all. But isn't that the way it always should be? "The Vampires of Bloody Island" is a wonderfully funny film with a captivating story and an amazing style. Think in terms of the old Hammer vampire films given the Addams Family treatment and you won't be far wrong. Definately going to be a Cult Classic and a must for your DVD or video collection. It took nearly 5 months to film it with a cast and crew of around 90 people, quite a family. Fancy an autographed copy? Pop on over to my shop and see what goodies we have! HARRY POTTER I HARRY POTTER AND THE PHILOSOPHERS STONE (2001. Feature film. Director Chris Columbus) I'd been hired many times to play a witch at Harry Potter book launches, and when I found out that they were going to knuckle down and make a film, I was like a woman possessed. Well, a bit more possessed than usual that is. I sat at home in my pentagram, praying to every deity I could imagine to let the director, Chris Columbus, see the infinite wisdom in casting me as a witch, any witch, I didn't care, I just HAD to be in the Harry Potter film. Well, as is usually the case when you want something enough, the phone rang and my agent casually enquired if I might like to go to a casting for Harry Potter at Leavesden studios (where they used to make the James Bond films, don't you know). Now completely taken over for the next decade to churn out as many Harry Potter films as the market can muster! So, I jumped on my broom and flew over to the casting, and as sure as the magickal forces are true and good, I got the part of a witch out shopping in the magical Diagon Alley. Good luck trying to find me though, I'm lost in the crowd somewhere! But hey, bigger things were around the corner for me... When the film came out and I was on the round of personal appearances at corporate and media events, I kept being asked the same question. was I going to be in the next one? And sure enough... HARRY POTTER II HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS (2002. Feature film. Director Chris Columbus) A darker, and bigger role for me than in the first film. (Well, you couldn't really get much smaller!) A few castings later and there I was, back on the set of the 2nd Harry Potter film with a nice little feature. Here I am as The Dark Witch, facing off Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter down the dark scary end of Knockturn Alley. What a horrible slimy place that was. I felt right at home. Poor little Danny was a bit unnerved by it though. Director Chris Columbus wanted me to scare the crap out of him! Anything to oblige, Mr. Powerful Hollywood Director, Sir! I enjoyed working with Daniel Radcliffe, although I think he found working with me a little unnerving! Poor little boy, he probably never knew fear in his life... until then!! HARRY POTTER III HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN (2004. Feature film. Director Alfonso Cueros) Just a tiny fly-by in this one. Yes that was me flying around on that broomstick cackeling like a mad... um... well, witch! Well spotted my eagle eyed darlings! Incredible to think that that one quick broomstick flight took so many days out of my life for castings, costume fittings, rehearsals and filming. Still, one word jumps to my mind everytime I see that scene... All together... "WWWHHHHHEEEEEEEEEEE !!!!!!!" It is the only way to travel! Now I know how to ride a broom I need never take the tube again! HARRY POTTER IV HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE (2005. Feature film. Director Mike Newell) This was an interesting film to do as apart from the usual fascination and enjoyment of working on a Harry Potter film there was something else very special about this one. Namely I got to work with my husband, Allin, who worked as Lord Voldermort's stand-in! Bald head, fangs, sharp fingernails!! All very Nosferatu! Ah, the ideal husband! Harry Potter! It's a family thing!! HARRY POTTER V HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX (2006. Feature film. Director David Yates) Well, I've been jumping around all the Harry Potter films, as you well know, but quite where the story is heading even we in the cast don't realy know. The creator, J.K.Rowling keeps the whole future plot very, very tightly to her chest. So it was with extreme delight that now, five films into the series, I find I HAVE A NAME!! What a revelation! I've flown brooms, I've shopped in Diagon Alley, I had that memorable encounter with Harry in Knocturn Alley in the second film, and now I discover I have a whole past! Not only that, but I have an IMPORTANT past. Hey, ignore any actress that says she's not excited to find out her character's past. I'm not going to give you my name just yet... You're going to have to wait untill the film is released. But let's just say my initials are D.M.! Oops! I've said too much! SHAUN OF THE DEAD (2004. Feature film. Director Edgar Wright) Zombies!! Don't you just love them? Not as scary as vampires, not as powerful as witches, but still a bloody enjoyable role to play! So when my agent offered me the role of a zombie in this wonderful British comedy horror, I leapt at the chance (or rather I glazed over my eyes and lumbered forward groaning at the chance!). Of course, it was only then that it was pointed out that Simon Pegg's character, Shaun, would be bashing me over the head with a cricket bat. Bastard! With all the rehearsals and different camera angles that numbered seventeen times! Yeah, I counted. Seventeen bloody times in the same part of my head, with the same cricket bat, having the 'dead-eye' contact lenses nearly knocked out of my head by the same increasingly appologetic Simon Pegg! Thanks for the hugs and kind words Simon, love you lots, but that really didn't help the bruising go down! Still, fantastic film though. I'm now baying for a sequel where I lead a large pack of zombies with mallets and pitchforks to get him back! Anyone interested? THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (2004. Feature film. Director Joel Schumaker) It took me I don't remember how many castings and recastings to get this part. It seemed to go on forever as they kept calling me back again and again. But finally they made the right choice and cast me as Ivana Havitov, the mad and bolshy costume designer in the Opera Paris. They then made the wrong decision by whittling my main scenes down to a mere fraction of what they were originally intended to be. Bastards! Well, That's the nature of film, darlings! My big argument with Carlotta (as played by Minnie Driver) was written out, And I was left with a few scenes of mugging it in the background instead. Oh well! Good film though, I can't hold it against them! The director Joel Schumaker was a great guy to work with, and of course, I had a fun time doing it. NEVERMIND THE BUZZCOCKS (2005. Television. BBC) I'm getting quite used to the flood of email and phonecalls after a TV appearance, (keep them coming!), but you lot went nuts after 'Nevermind the Buzzcocks' was aired on BBC2. I never knew so many of you watched it! My agent phoned and asked if I'd like to trot down to BBC TV centre to get all pentagramed and PVC'd up to appear in the Buzzcock's identity parade with 90's singer Mary Kiarni. The panel this episode included Mark Lamar, Phil Jupitus, Bill Baily and Tony Blackburn. I'd been warned that the panel can be quite vitriollic, but all I got were glowing compliments!! Here's what they said: (I was Number 4) MARK LAMAR: Round three is the identity parade. Bill Bailey, Tony Blackburn and Catherine Williams, we've got a classic dance hit for you. Here's Time Frequency with "Real Love". (Roll VT) MARK LAMAR: And Time Frequency reached number 8 in 1993 with vocalist Mary Kiarni. But can you tell me where she is in our line-up? Is it number 1, Mary Mary? Number 2, Lairy Mary? Number 3, Hairy Mary? NUMBER 4, SCARY MARY? or number 5, Julian Clairy? BILL BAILY: Number Four, Scary Mary! I've seen her in my nightmares! I seem to remember, she came to me in my dreams and said "I AM THE GATEKEEPER!" MARK LAMAR: She really is classic nightmare material!" TONY BLACKBURN: Those eyes! Those eyes!! Poor boys! You'd think they'd never come face to face with a Scream Queen before!! BLUNDERS (2006. Television. BBC) I was a Cyclops. My co-star was a Mermaid. Hmm, Another glamour job then!! Bloody funny though! DREAM TEAM (2005. Television. Sky 1) An odd one this! (Hell, is anything I ever end up doing not odd!). I have a semi regular role on thiis popular Sky 1 drama as a journalist, but what I want to talk about here is one particular special little something I did. You see, there was this nightmare sequence... (already I feel quite at home!). One of the lead characters was having a feverish nightmare about a press conference turning hideously bad, and the journalists turning into the evil dead! Well, who better than the journalist character played by me!!! So there I was, a Zombie Journalist! Now that I've got Zombie Journalist on my CV I feel ready for everything! What next, a Witch out shopping? A Vampire going to the doctors? A Transilvanian Air Hostess? (Oh, actually, I've already done all of those!!!) SPY GAME (2001. Feature film. Director Tony Scott) OK, It's not horror or sci-fi genre, and it was hardly a sizeable part as I was only on set for one day. But hey, BRAD PIT TOUCHED MY KNEE!!! Just thought I'd share that with you! THE DOCTOR RETURNS (2004. Television pilot.) In this, the pilot show for a TV series spoofing the low budget sci-fi of Doctor Who, I played the Robot Of Evil. Lots of waddling about with ray-guns dressed in last years baco-foil fashions. The show also featured Michael Barber who I was to work with again a short while later on The Vampires of Bloody Island. Ah, the British Horror Film scene is such a tiny world!