Susannah Harker can be quietly charming without making a performance seem slight. Her Jane Bennet benefits from that restraint; we find her less well served by House of Cards, whose writing gives Mattie Storin too little life of her own.
Fi1m perspective
While Colin Firth makes Darcy’s reserve look effortful, Susannah Harker’s Jane Bennet offers a gentler presence. In Pride and Prejudice (1995), she and Crispin Bonham-Carter’s Charles Bingley give the central romance a welcome counterweight. We enjoyed their company because neither performance presses its charm on us. The adaptation allows both supporting performances to be quiet without making them negligible. It is a useful reminder that a long courtship needs people we are pleased to spend time with beyond its central couple.
Harker’s breakthrough had come with House of Cards (1990), playing the journalist Mattie Storin. Here, her composure is less well served: Ian Richardson’s Urquhart gets most of the wit and psychological interest. Davies’s writing makes the surrounding characters’ usefulness to him too apparent, and Mattie has too little independent life. We too often find ourselves waiting for Richardson to return, which is a limitation in such a brisk and enjoyable thriller. Harker has to hold our attention against a script that keeps directing it elsewhere.
Later work takes her away from classic literary adaptation: Ultraviolet (1998) casts her as Dr Angela Marsh in a science-fiction miniseries, and Intimacy (2001) brings a film role for Patrice Chéreau. Theatre and audio drama also form a continuing part of her work. She is often cast as intelligent, composed women, but that does not mean she belongs only in period drama.
We like Harker’s restraint, but these two roles show why it needs help from the writing. With Bonham-Carter, she has a partner whose charm is equally unforced, and their gentler pairing has a place in the adaptation. Mattie needs a fuller life of her own before any performance could compete fairly with Richardson’s. Start with Pride and Prejudice, and give the quieter couple their due.
Biography
Susannah Harker is an English actress. She played Mattie Storin in the 1990 BBC series House of Cards and Jane Bennet in the 1995 BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.
Harker trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama. She received a BAFTA TV Award nomination for her performance in House of Cards. Her other screen credits include A Dry White Season (1989), Surviving Picasso (1996) and Intimacy (2001). She has also worked extensively in theatre.
Her mother is actress Polly Adams and her sister is actress Caroline Harker.
