Anna Maxwell Martin makes difficult characters convincing without insisting that we like them. We rate her quieter work, too: her Esther Summerson brings welcome steadiness to Bleak House, even when the adaptation gives her too little room.
Fi1m perspective
In Bleak House (2005), Anna Maxwell Martin's Esther Summerson gives us someone quiet to watch while more forceful characters press for attention. Alongside Denis Lawson as John Jarndyce and Carey Mulligan as Ada Clare, she helps keep the drama steady. We warmed to her Esther because she offered relief from the exaggerated performances around her. The direction does not always give that quieter acting enough time, and we wanted it to stay with her a little longer.
This was her breakthrough television role, though the programme is only a partial success. Andrew Davies's adaptation has plenty of gothic comedy, but the exaggerated characterisation too often makes the serious drama difficult to believe. Maxwell Martin cannot solve that problem on her own; Gillian Anderson and Burn Gorman remain our strongest reasons to stay. What Esther establishes is the value of letting her work without demanding a conspicuous effect in every scene.
She had already played Lyra Belacqua on stage in His Dark Materials (2003), and the parts after Esther did not confine her to period drama. Her N in Poppy Shakespeare (2008) is one example of her ability to make emotionally complicated people convincing. She can switch tone quickly and is willing to make a character unsympathetic, two useful qualities when moving between drama and comedy. We prefer that willingness to the sort of performance that keeps reassuring us there is a nicer person underneath.
In Motherland (2016), her harried mother Julia lets humour and domestic tension occupy the same scene. DCS Patricia Carmichael, whom she began playing in Line of Duty in 2019, puts her in sterner authority in Jed Mercurio's crime drama. Neither part depends on being easy company, but we would not want those harder characters to obscure the quieter actor we saw in Esther. Start with Motherland for the comedy under pressure; Bleak House requires more patience with the people around her.
Biography
Anna Maxwell Martin is an English actress. Born Anna Charlotte Martin on 10 May 1977 in Beverley, East Riding of Yorkshire, she studied history at the University of Liverpool before training at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.
She first gained prominence on stage as Lyra Belacqua in the National Theatre’s production of His Dark Materials (2003–2004). Her television breakthrough came as Esther Summerson in the BBC adaptation of Bleak House (2005), for which she won a BAFTA Television Award for Best Actress. She received a second BAFTA for her role in Poppy Shakespeare (2008). Other notable credits include Line of Duty, Motherland and The Personal History of David Copperfield (2019).
