
Acting
Dec 31, 1953
Queensland, Australia
Penny Downie
Acting
Biography
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.
Feature Films (24)

Lawrence, 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

David 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

Griff 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

Television 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

Deric 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

Former 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

A 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

Cicero, 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

Life and adventures of lord George Gordon Byron. BBC dramatization of the poet's final thirteen years
Byron

A 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

In 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

In London for the Prime Minister's funeral, Mike Banning discovers a plot to assassinate all the attending world leaders.
London Has Fallen
Television & Series (36)

Inspector Morse is a detective drama based on Colin Dexter's series of Chief Inspector Morse novels. The series starred John Thaw as Chief Inspector Morse and Kevin Whately as Sergeant Lewis, as well as a large cast of notable actors and actresses.
Inspector Morse

Follows two rival barristers' chambers in Manchester, England, contrasting defence Jack Roper's struggling firm with his former mentor, prosecutor Laurence Scammel's more established chambers, and exploring their personal and professional rivalry through complex legal cases.
New Street Law

From England to Egypt, accompanied by his elegant and trustworthy sidekicks, the intelligent yet eccentrically-refined Belgian detective Hercule Poirot pits his wits against a collection of first class deceptions.
Agatha Christie's Poirot

The Cazalets is a 2001 television drama series about the life of a large privileged family in the years 1937 to 1947. Most of the action takes place in London, and at the family's large estate in Sussex. The drama was based on the novels of Elizabeth Jane Howard, and adapted by the screenwriter Douglas Livingstone. The series was originally produced by Cinema Verity for BBC One and is available on DVD.
The Cazalets

Amid an international crisis, a US diplomat contends with her high-profile job as ambassador to the UK and her strained marriage to a political star.







