---
name: "Julia Ford"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/julia-ford"
fi1m_id: "julia-ford"
imdb_id: "nm0285726"
tmdb_id: 148135
wikidata_id: "Q6306416"
roles: ["Actor"]
born: "7 August 1963"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 3
average_fi1m_score: 76
average_as: "actor"
average_over: 3
updated: "2026-10-07T17:24:32.928342+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Julia Ford

## Identity

Julia Ford

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/julia-ford
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** julia-ford
- **IMDb ID:** nm0285726
- **TMDB ID:** 148135
- **Wikidata ID:** Q6306416
- **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_Ford, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6306416, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0285726/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/148135

Actor. Born 7 August 1963 in Chester, Cheshire, England, UK.

## Details

- **Work:** Actor
- **Born:** 7 August 1963, Chester, Cheshire, England, UK
- **Active:** 2006–2015
- **Average Fi1m score:** 76, as actor, over 3 titles
- **Fi1m score by decade:** 2000s 76 (2), 2010s 78 (1)
- **Score spread:** 0 at 80+, 3 at 60–79, 0 under 60
- **Lead roles:** 0 of 1 acting credits billed first or second
- **Genres:** Drama 3
- **Screen time:** 1 hours of reviewed films
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_Ford, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6306416, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0285726/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/148135

## Fi1m on Julia Ford

> For nearly thirty years Julia Ford was the mother at the edge of a British television drama, carrying more in a tired shoulder than the script gave her to say. Then she moved behind the camera, where she spends her time watching faces.

Sheila Philips in *Coming Down the Mountain* (2007) is a mother who settled a question years ago and has not let herself reopen it. Mark Haddon's script gives her and Neil Dudgeon's John little to say about that, and never leaves them in a room together long enough to find out what the decision cost. Ford plays the cost anyway. The tiredness is in her shoulders before it is in her lines, and we found ourselves watching her at the edge of scenes that were about somebody else, moved by a woman the film had half forgotten.

That was her trade for nearly thirty years. After Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and a lead at the National Theatre at 23, as Agnes in Molière's *The School for Wives*, she settled into British television and the social-realist end of British film: Sandra Woolley in Shane Meadows's *A Room for Romeo Brass* (1999), Sally in *Now Is Good* (2012), Jean in *Radiator* (2014), three films with the director Kenny Glenaan, and runs in *Shameless*, *Misfits* and *Happy Valley* (2014). Mothers, mostly, and women in charge of something, and women in trouble. *A Room for Romeo Brass* is the one that earned her the word underrated, which has followed her about ever since.

Then, around forty, she turned round. Short films first, then episodes of *Doctors* and *Moving On*, then a steady run of series: *Safe* (2018), *Sticks and Stones* (2019), *The Bay* and *Grace* (2021), *Everything I Know About Love* (2022), *Until I Kill You* (2024) and the second series of *Showtrial* (2024), three of them with World Productions and the producer Ken Horn. She has said plainly that she prefers directing. By her own account she waits, lets the cast try things, and keeps the takes few so nothing goes stale. On *Until I Kill You*, a true-crime drama told from the survivor's side, she worked handheld, with shallow focus, holding on a face while something changed in it. "I’m really fascinated by faces," she has said. "I almost hold my breath watching a take." That is Sheila Philips's shoulders, seen from the other side of the camera.

The caveat is the obvious one. Holding on a face is a habit that can become a tic, and true crime is a genre that likes to linger a beat too long, so each series has to earn its lingering on its own. What we can say is where to begin. Start with *A Room for Romeo Brass* and *Coming Down the Mountain* to see what she did when nobody was giving her the scene, then watch *Until I Kill You* and ask whether, now that she decides who gets it, she gives it to the woman at the edge of the frame.

## Biography

Julia Ford is a British actress and director. She began her career with a lead role as Agnes in Molière's *School for Wives* at the National Theatre at the age of 23. Her stage work also includes Lydia Lambert in *Husbands and Sons* at the National Theatre in 2015 and 2016.

As an actress, Ford has appeared in films including *A Room for Romeo Brass* (1999), *Coming Down the Mountain* (2007) as Sheila Philips, *Now Is Good* (2012) as Sally, and *Radiator* (2014). Television credits include *Midsomer Murders* (1997), *Shameless* (2004), *Being Human* (2009), *Misfits* (2009), *Vera* (2011), and *Happy Valley* (2014).

Ford has directed episodes of *Safe* (2018) for Netflix, *Sticks and Stones* (2019) for ITV, *Everything I Know About Love* (2022), and the miniseries *Until I Kill You* (2024), for which she won an RTS Craft & Design Award.

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com.*

## On Fi1m (3)

- *Room at the Top* (2012), Fi1m 78, as Mrs. Thompson — [page](https://film.one/tv/room-at-the-top-2012.md)
- *Coming Down the Mountain* (2007), Fi1m 77, as Sheila Philips — [page](https://film.one/film/coming-down-the-mountain.md)
- *The Street* (2006), Fi1m 74, as Roz Morgan — [page](https://film.one/tv/the-street.md)

## Complete filmography (55)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *Believe Me* (2026), series, Director
- *Unforgivable* (2025), Director
- *Until I Kill You* (2024), series, Director
- *Everything I Know About Love* (2022), series, Director
- *Showtrial* (2021), series, Director
- *Grace* (2021), series, Director
- *Sticks and Stones* (2019), series, Director
- *The Bay* (2019), series, Director
- *Safe* (2018), series, Director
- *Babs* (2017), as Julie Deeks
- *Don't Take My Baby* (2015), as Laura
- *Radiator* (2014), as Jean
- *The Secret of Crickley Hall* (2012), series, as Irene Judd
- *Room at the Top* (2012), series, as Mrs. Thompson — Fi1m 78, [page](https://film.one/tv/room-at-the-top-2012.md)
- *Now Is Good* (2012), as Sally
- *Stepping Up* (2012), series, Director, Creator
- *Secrets and Words* (2012), series, Director
- *Vinyl* (2012), Actor
- *Macbeth* (2011), as Lady Macbeth
- *Vera* (2011), series, as Morven — Fi1m 72, [page](https://film.one/tv/vera.md)
- *I'll Tell You* (2010), as Maureen
- *Misfits* (2009), series, as Pat — Fi1m 80, [page](https://film.one/tv/misfits.md)
- *Red Riding: The Year of Our Lord 1980* (2009), as Elizabeth Hall
- *Moving On* (2009), series, as Jean · Director
- *Being Human* (2009), series, as Fleur
- *Summer* (2008), as Ann
- *Hughie Green, Most Sincerely* (2008), as June Laverick
- *To Build a Home* (2007), Actor
- *Coming Down the Mountain* (2007), as Sheila Philips — Fi1m 77, [page](https://film.one/film/coming-down-the-mountain.md)
- *The Street* (2006), series, as Roz Morgan — Fi1m 74, [page](https://film.one/tv/the-street.md)
- *All About George* (2005), series, as Annie Kinsey
- *Moth* (2004), as Angela
- *Island at War* (2004), series, as Kathleen Jonas
- *Shameless* (2004), series, as Maureen — Fi1m 75, [page](https://film.one/tv/shameless.md)
- *Birthday Girl* (2002), as Karen
- *Shadow Man* (2002), Actor
- *Waking the Dead* (2001), series, as Lucy Dearden
- *A Room for Romeo Brass* (2000), as Sandra Woolley
- *Anchor Me* (2000), as Jackie Carter
- *Doctors* (2000), series, Director
- *Soft Sand, Blue Sea* (1998), as Sarah
- *Midsomer Murders* (1997), series, as Joanna Craxton — Fi1m 66, [page](https://film.one/tv/midsomer-murders.md)
- *Insiders* (1997), series, as Annie Whitby
- *Silent Witness* (1996), series, Director
- *Ghosts* (1995), series, as Joanne
- *The Healer* (1994), as Dr. Martha Fairbass
- *The Merrihill Millionaires* (1993), as Fiona Clarke
- *Peak Practice* (1993), series, as Liz Thurston, Sandra Jordan
- *A Fatal Inversion* (1992), as Vivien
- *Heartbeat* (1992), series, as Sandra Wilson
- *In Suspicious Circumstances* (1991), series, as Alice Hewitt
- *The Ritz* (1987), series, as Carol
- *Casualty* (1986), series, as Susie — Fi1m 68, [page](https://film.one/tv/casualty.md)
- *The Bill* (1984), series, as Jean Ashmore
- *Bergerac* (1981), series, as Suzy Burchet

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/julia-ford