---
name: "Linda Bassett"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/linda-bassett"
fi1m_id: "linda-bassett"
imdb_id: "nm0060221"
tmdb_id: 8443
wikidata_id: "Q3134239"
roles: ["Actor"]
born: "4 February 1950"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 4
average_fi1m_score: 70
average_as: "actor"
average_over: 4
updated: "2026-10-07T13:51:20.014918+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."
---

# Linda Bassett

## Identity

Linda Bassett

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/linda-bassett
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** linda-bassett
- **IMDb ID:** nm0060221
- **TMDB ID:** 8443
- **Wikidata ID:** Q3134239
- **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linda_Bassett, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3134239, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0060221/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/8443

Actor. Born 4 February 1950 in Pluckley, Kent, England, UK.

## Details

- **Work:** Actor
- **Born:** 4 February 1950, Pluckley, Kent, England, UK
- **Active:** 1989–2012
- **Also known as:** لیندا باست
- **BAFTA Film Awards:** 1 BAFTA nomination
- **Average Fi1m score:** 70, as actor, over 4 titles
- **Fi1m score by decade:** 1990s 74 (1), 2000s 64 (2), 2010s 80 (1)
- **Fi1m against the critics:** 70 to 68 across 4 titles
- **Score spread:** 1 at 80+, 2 at 60–79, 1 under 60
- **Lead roles:** 1 of 2 acting credits billed first or second
- **Genres:** Drama 4, Comedy 1, Romance 1
- **Screen time:** 6 hours of reviewed films
- **Box office:** $246m across 3 films with figures
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linda_Bassett, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3134239, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0060221/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/8443

## Streaming the US now

- **Netflix:** [*Call the Midwife*](https://film.one/tv/call-the-midwife.md) (80)

For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country.

## Fi1m on Linda Bassett

> Linda Bassett is particularly good at playing women expected to cope. We value the strain beneath her matter-of-fact manner: she makes their competence believable without pretending that looking after everyone else comes easily.

In the family arguments in *East Is East* (1999), Linda Bassett’s Ella Khan has affection to spare, but not an endless supply of patience. Holding these people together takes work, and Bassett makes that work visible without turning Ella into a saint. We were moved by the strain in her performance, because her love for the family never conceals how much they ask of her. Alongside Om Puri, she gives Damien O’Donnell’s comedy a believable family even when the humour becomes too broad.

It was her breakthrough, in a part she had already played on stage, rather than her first substantial screen appearance. She had drawn notice as Gertrude Stein in *Waiting for the Moon* (1987). The work that followed included Nelly Boxall in *The Hours* (2002) and Cora in *Calendar Girls* (2003); in 2015, she began her long-running role as Nurse Phyllis Crane in *Call the Midwife*. Those ensemble films and sustained television work suit an actor whose understated style lets a character belong among other people.

There is more to her work, though, than the casting shorthand of a resilient, matter-of-fact woman. Her long association with playwright Caryl Churchill makes sense beside that performance in *East Is East*. The clarity and restraint she brings to Churchill’s compressed writing also serve Ella, whose patience Bassett never asks us to mistake for agreement. The limitation lies in how readily that skill can become a casting habit. Being perceived as a working-class actor has meant fewer classical roles than she had hoped.

Nor can her precision put right everything around her. *East Is East* is lively and funny, but its uneven handling of domestic violence matters, especially when Bassett and Puri seem able to follow the arguments further than the comedy allows. Ella’s visible strain makes the changes of tone harder to shrug off, which is a virtue in the acting and a problem for the film. Start there for Bassett, provided the evening does not require a reassuring family comedy.

## Biography

Linda Bassett is an English actress born on 4 February 1950 in Pluckley, Kent. She was raised in Pimlico, London, and developed an interest in acting through visits to the Old Vic Theatre. After leaving school she worked there as an usherette before studying English at the University of Leeds, which she left after one year. She then joined a community drama group and regards this period as her theatrical training, having received no formal education in acting.

Bassett made her London stage debut in 1982 and joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1991. She first gained wider recognition for her role as Ella Khan in the 1999 film *East Is East*, for which she received a BAFTA nomination for Best Actress in a Leading Role. Other notable screen credits include *The Hours* (2002), *Calendar Girls* (2003), *Kinky Boots* (2005), *The Reader* (2008) and the recurring role of Nurse Phyllis Crane in the television series *Call the Midwife* (2015–present).

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

## On Fi1m (4)

- *Call the Midwife* (2012), Fi1m 80, as Phyllis Crane — [page](https://film.one/tv/call-the-midwife.md)
- *The Reader* (2008), Fi1m 56, as Ms. Brenner — [page](https://film.one/film/the-reader.md)
- *The Hours* (2002), Fi1m 72, as Nelly Boxall — [page](https://film.one/film/the-hours.md)
- *East Is East* (1999), Fi1m 74, as Ella Khan — [page](https://film.one/film/east-is-east.md)

## Complete filmography (61)

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

- *Bare Roots* (2026), as Sue
- *The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry* (2023), as Queenie
- *Careful How You Go* (2018), Actor
- *Strike* (2017), series, as Joan Nancarrow
- *Carnage: Swallowing the Past* (2017), as Dr Yasmine Vondenburg
- *Effie Gray* (2014), as Anna
- *National Theatre Live: People* (2013), as Iris
- *Spies of Warsaw* (2013), series, as Maika Rosen
- *The Life and Adventures of Nick Nickleby* (2012), series, as Mrs. Smike
- *Call the Midwife* (2012), series, as Phyllis Crane, Nurse Phyllis Crane — Fi1m 80, [page](https://film.one/tv/call-the-midwife.md)
- *West Is West* (2010), as Ella Khan
- *Grandma's House* (2010), series, as Grandma Lily
- *The Reader* (2008), as Ms. Brenner — Fi1m 56, [page](https://film.one/film/the-reader.md)
- *Lark Rise to Candleford* (2008), series, as Queenie Turrill
- *Cass* (2008), as Doll
- *Sense and Sensibility* (2008), series, as Mrs. Jennings
- *The English Harem* (2005), as Monica Pringle
- *Colour Me Kubrick* (2005), as Trolley Lady
- *Separate Lies* (2005), as Maggie
- *Kinky Boots* (2005), as Mel
- *Spivs* (2004), as Auntie Vee
- *The Brief* (2004), series, as Maureen Tyler
- *Calendar Girls* (2003), as Cora
- *This Little Life* (2003), as Nurse Nina
- *The Hours* (2002), as Nelly Boxall — Fi1m 72, [page](https://film.one/film/the-hours.md)
- *The Martins* (2001), as Anthea
- *Don Quixote* (2000), as Housekeeper
- *Lounge Act* (2000), Actor
- *Beautiful People* (1999), as Sister
- *East Is East* (1999), as Ella Khan — Fi1m 74, [page](https://film.one/film/east-is-east.md)
- *dinnerladies* (1998), series, as Peggy
- *Far from the Madding Crowd* (1998), series, as Maryann Money
- *Out of Hours* (1998), series, as Carol-Anne Kumar
- *Far from the Madding Crowd* (1998), as Maryann Money
- *Spoonface Steinberg* (1998), as Mrs. Spud
- *Our Mutual Friend* (1998), series, as Abby Potterson
- *The Life and Crimes of William Palmer* (1998), as Mary Thornton
- *Oscar and Lucinda* (1997), as Betty Stratton
- *Midsomer Murders* (1997), series, as Eileen Carnack — Fi1m 66, [page](https://film.one/tv/midsomer-murders.md)
- *Alive and Kicking* (1996), as Doctor
- *No Bananas* (1996), series, as Ellen Slater
- *Mary Reilly* (1996), as Mary's Mother
- *Haunted* (1995), as Madame Brontski
- *Loved Up* (1995), as Mum
- *Bramwell* (1995), series, as Maud
- *A Village Affair* (1995), as Gwen
- *Kavanagh Q.C.* (1995), series, as Miss Haddon QC
- *In The Cold Light Of Day* (1994), as Mrs. Loveless
- *Skallagrigg* (1994), as Susan
- *Frank Stubbs Promotes* (1993), series, as Eileen
- *A Touch of Frost* (1992), series, as Mrs Cornish — Fi1m 76, [page](https://film.one/tv/a-touch-of-frost.md)
- *Heartbeat* (1992), series, as Beryl Palmer
- *A Small Dance* (1991), as Sandra Matkin
- *Let Him Have It* (1991), as Mrs. Miles
- *News Hounds* (1990), as Virginia Lyddon
- *Paris by Night* (1989), as Janet Swanton
- *Waiting for the Moon* (1987), as Gertrude Stein
- *Casualty* (1986), series, as Olwyn Humphries — Fi1m 68, [page](https://film.one/tv/casualty.md)
- *The Bill* (1984), series, Actor
- *Dramarama* (1983), series, as Meg Crawford
- *American Playhouse* (1982), series, as Gertrude Stein

## Awards

### BAFTA Film Awards — 0 won, 1 nominated

- 2000: Best Actress in a Leading Role (nominated), for *East Is East*

*From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.*

---
© 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/linda-bassett