Daniela Denby-Ashe gives North & South a heroine who does not hurry to be liked. Her firmness can keep us at a distance, but it makes the romance worth the patience it asks for.
Fi1m perspective
In North & South (2004), Daniela Denby-Ashe makes listening look like an effort. Her Margaret Hale takes John Thornton’s words seriously without making agreement seem inevitable, and Richard Armitage gives her a reserve worth pushing against. We were moved by their exchanges because both actors make the difficulty of taking another person seriously so clear. Their prickliness makes the attraction convincing. Denby-Ashe does not soften Margaret’s firmness simply to make that attraction easier for us to accept.
Much of her television work has been in continuing ensembles. Sarah Hills in EastEnders (1995–1999) was the breakthrough; Janey Harper in My Family (2000–2011, with a break in 2003) established her in long-running comedy. Her comic timing and reliability within an ensemble matter here: Margaret is not the whole account of what she does. The period-drama lead came during the sitcom years, rather than after a wholesale change of direction.
Brian Percival’s adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskell is particularly well suited to her firmness, giving Margaret sharp dialogue and class divisions that make disagreement consequential. The limitation is that Denby-Ashe can keep us at a distance for longer than we would like. When the pacing drags, the performance does not always supply the warmth that might carry us through. Yet she and Armitage make small shifts in their exchanges worth attending to, without asking us to regard every silence as important. The romance earns its gradual progress through the care they take over those conversations.
Mary in Torchwood (2006) and the recurring parts of Jem Allen and Lorraine Donnegan in Waterloo Road (2009–2013) belong to the broader television career. They need not be treated as steps towards or away from Margaret Hale. We would welcome another lead that gives Denby-Ashe this much to resist, with dialogue strong enough to justify the resistance. Choose North & South for a romance in which listening requires some work.
Biography
Daniela Denby-Ashe is an English actress born on 9 August 1978 in London. She is the daughter of Polish immigrants; her father, originally named Miroslaw Pszkit, arrived in Britain at the age of 12, and her mother was raised in France by Polish parents. She studied ballet from the age of two and tap later, and attended drama schools including the Corona Academy between the ages of 10 and 16. She is fluent in English, Polish and French.
Denby-Ashe first gained attention for her role as Sarah Hills in the BBC soap opera EastEnders (1995–1999). She played Janey Harper in the sitcom My Family (2000–2011) and took the lead role of Margaret Hale in the 2004 BBC adaptation of North & South. Other credits include appearances in Torchwood (2006), Waterloo Road (2009–2013) and Midsomer Murders (2010).
