Glorious Management

Follow Katherine on Twitter @katherinejake

Katherine has appeared in numerous TV and radio comedies, as well as writing and performing in 3 full length solo stage shows.  She is a regular performer in the BAFTA award winning Armstrong and Miller Show on BBC1, the 3rd series of which will be seen later this year.  She also played Louise in Extras on BBC2 and has recently been seen on Bremner, Bird and Fortune, and heard on The Now Show and Look Away Now on Radio 4.  

Katherine has written and recorded her first radio series "North by Northamptonshire" - a narrative 4 part comedy in which she plays several parts.  The cast also includes Sheila Hancock, Penelope Wilton, Felicity Montagu, Mackenzie Crook and Kevin Eldon. The series aired on Radio 4 from June 16th 2010 to huge critical acclaim. Due to the success of Series One, BBC commissioned a second Series of North By Northamptonshire which transmitted on BBC Radio 4 from December 2nd 2011 to January 13th 2012. 

LIVE WORK

Katherine is a regular performer on the comedy circuit, appearing as characters and sketch shows including Sketch Pad, The Pros From Dover. She was a Writer and performer in five seasons of Beyond the News,  a topical comedy show featuring character monologues.  Performed at the Red Rose Comedy Club, the Hampstead Comedy Club, the Man in the Moon Theatre and The Crown and Two Chairmen. She is part of the team behind new sketch night The Works at Madame JoJos, and was part of the original line-up for the now legendary Ealing Live. She also has toured with Armstrong & Miller as part of the live shows, always to rave reviews.

SOLO SHOWS

Wadenhoe Village Hall – Soho Theatre – 2007

Lost In Bank Station – Assembly Rooms – 2004

Katherine Jakeways – Pleasance - 2003

RADIO

North By Northamptonshire Series 2 (writer and performer) - Radio 4

The Diary of Samuel Pepys - Elizabeth Pepys - Radio 4

Brian Gulliver's Travels - Radio 4

North By Northamptonshire (writer and performer) - Radio 4

This Is My Mark – Radio 4

Look Away Now (series 2 & 3)  - Radio 4

The Now Show  - Radio 4

Buy Me Up TV – Angela Bassett – Radio 2

The Lost Blog of Scooby Trevithick – Radio 4

The Wooden Overcoat – Lilli Cluj – Radio 4

Out to Lunch  - Regular contributor – Radio 2

Deep Trouble (2 series) -  Radio 4

Rubbish (2 series) – Radio 4

Parsons and Naylor’s Pull-Out Section – Radio 2

Radio 9 – Radio 4

The Milk Run  - Radio 1

Travel Presenter – numerous BBC and GWR stations

Newsreader – Kiss FM Breakfast Show

COMMERCIALS

Game - TBWA - 2011

Trebor Gum- TV campaign- 2009

Virgin Trains  - Sunflower - 2007

OK Magazine – TV campaign -2002

Orange – Photographic campaign - 2000

VOICEOVER WORK

Katherine has done numerous voiceovers for local, national and international companies advertisements.

TV

Horrible Histories - CBBC - 2011

Mount Pleasant - Tiger Aspect - Sky One - 2011

Lee Nelson's Well Good Show - Avalon - 2011

Big Brother's Bit on the Side - Presenter - Ch5 - 2011

Celebrity Big Brother's Bit on the Side - Presenter - Ch5 - 2011

The First Men In The Moon- BBC4 - 2010

Armstrong and Miller Show (series 3) - Various Roles- BBC1 - 2010

The Warm-Up Guy (pilot) - C4 - 2010

Miranda - Amanda Barnes - BBC1 - 2009

Armstrong and Miller Show (series 2) – Various Roles - BBC1 – 2009

Bremner, Bird and Fortune – Various Roles – Ch4 – 2008

Spongeheads for BBC3 – Reporter – Black Dog TV – 2008

UXB – Fiona Allen Project – Various Roles – Channel X – 2008

Comedy Shuffle (series 2) – Faye Waddingham – BBC3 – 2007

Raging – sketch show pilot – BBC Scotland – 2007

North by North North – sketch show pilot – BBC Scotland – 2007

Wadenhoe Village Hall- pilot of solo show – Jones The Film – 2007

Not Tonight With Trevor McDonald – Panelist – Hat Trick – 2007

Celebrity Big Brother’s Little Brother – Regular Reporter – Ch4 – 2007

Armstrong and Miller Show (series 1) – Various Roles – BBC1 – 2007

Comedy Shuffle (series 1) – Faye Waddingham/Sylvia Fox – BBC3 – 2006

Extras – Louise – BBC1 – 2006

Big Brother’s Little Brother – Regular Reporter – Ch4 – 2006

Beared Ladies  - Carol – BBC – 2006

Armstrong and Miller Show (pilot)  - Various Roles – BBC – 2006

Movie Lounge – Guest – FIVE – 2006

Pearshaped – Regular –  Tiger Aspect for FIVE – 2005

The Message – Regular sketches – BBC – 2005

Hyperdrive  - Female Glish – BBC – 2005

Not Tonight with John Sargeant – Co-host – Cheeky TV for ITV1 – 2005

FWTV – Lorna (Co-host) – Shed for ITV2 – 2005

FAQ U – Panelist – Endemaol for Ch4 – 2005

Blackout – Lucienne – Ealing Studios for Ch4 – 2005

The News Never Sleeps – Co-Anchor – Pilot – Talkback – 2004

Skin Deep – Rachel – Celador for Ch4 – 2004

Gyles’ Home Shopping Channel – Co-Host -Pilot– HatTrick – 2004

Shrink  - Janet – Pilot – Vera -2003

According To Bex – Marla – BBC – 2003

Fact Hunt with Al Murray – Jaycee– Avalon – 2003

Oblivious Popstars – Reporter – Tiger Aspect for ITV – 2003

Crouching Producer, Hidden Camera – Tiger Aspect – 2002

What’s The Story – Panelist – Anglia TV – 2002

GMTV  - Regular travel reporter – 2001-03

THEATRE

One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest –  dir.Terry Johnson & Tamara Harvey – Garrick Theatre – 2006

The Odd Couple –  dir. Guy Masterson – Assembly Hall – 2005

One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest –  dir. Terry Johnson & Tamara Harvey - Gielgud Theatre 2004/05

One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest –  dir. Terry Johnson & Tamara Harvey – Assembly Rooms – 2004

Age Sex Location –  dir. Pip Pickering – Riverside Studios – 2004

Hamlet – dir.John Russell Brown – Bloomsbury Theatre – 2001

Sweetheart – Jermyn Street Theatre – 1999

ROLES AT LAMDA

Attempts On Her Life – dir. Alistair Coomer

The Suicide  - Cleopatra Maximovna – dir. John Bashford

All’s Well That Ends Well – Countess – dir. Penny Cherns

The Plain Dealer – Olivia/Widow – dir. Jonathan Chadwick

The Witch – Duchess – dir. John Link

Funeral Games  - Tess – dir. Paul Foster

INTERNET

The Meeting – Elaine – ComdyBox

QI News – Sophie Langton – ComedyBox

The Very Real Adventures of Batman and Robin – Night Kitten – ComedyBox

The H Sketch – Agent – ComedyBox

Around My Region – Penny Bundock – Log.tv

Jan Says Hello – Jan – ConstantComedy

CASTING INFO

Spotlight no: 3263

Height: 5’11

Casting Age: 26 - 36

Eye Colour: Green

Hair Colour: Dark brown

Accents: RP, Cockney, East Anglian, Edinburgh, Irish, Liverpool, Birmingham, Manchester, Somerset, Yorkshire, Welsh, Australian, Regional American.

Languages: English (native), A-level French, basic German

Skills: Viola (Grade VII), Piano (Grade V), Singing (Soprano), Swimming, Basic Certificate of the British Academy of Dramatic Combat, Full clean driving license. 

TRAINING

1998-1999 London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art

Postgrad Dipolma in Acting

1995 – 1998 University of Sheffield – BA (Hons) English Lit

PRESS

NORTH BY NORTHAMPTONSHIRE PREVIEW PRESS FOR SERIES TWO

“We return to the eccentric town of Wadenbrook, where everything is just a degree off normal. Rod, the supermarket manager, is sharing much too much information with his customers over the Tannoy. Esther and Jonathan continue in their joyless but dogged determination to procreate, and Shiela Hancock, the narrator, casts a wry eye over everything. The second episode of a finely crafted, six part sitcom.” Daily Mail 3.12.11

“Hear this… Laugh until you cry as the bleakest sitcom ever written returns for a new run. Ostensibly, Katherine Jakeways’s series is a comedy: it has the structure of a comedy and the characters of a comedy, and it’s set in the kind of stupefied suburbia that has spawned a thousand sitcoms. But this is humour of the blackest kind as lives of quiet desperation and bitter disappointment are played out against the backdrop of residents ‘ meetings, church hall events and supermarket announcements. Brilliantly played by a fine cast including Penelope Wilton, Mackenzie Crook Sheila Hancock and Kevin Eldon, it’s superbly written too.” Time Out London, 1.12.11-7.12.11

"RADIO MOMENT OF THE WEEK" Radio Times, 26.11.11-02.12.11

"Don't miss... Sheila Hancock narrates a spikey comic drama drama with a top-class cast in North by Northamptonshire" Radio Times, 26.11.11-02.12.11

"...a finely written comic delight." **** Saturday Daily Mail, 26.11.11

"Full of quiet wit." **** Mail On Sunday, 27.11.11

"Set in a town of 'low hills and high-definition televisions', Middle England enclave Wadenbrook houses a smorgasbord of thwarted dreams and passions. In series two of Sheila Hancock-narrated slice of rural life, spurned wife, Jan returns from Australia, still harbouring her desire for a hen-pecked husband, while supermarket manager Rod uses his tannoy to romance checkout pin-up Tanya. The comedy plays like an Alan Bennett-scripted edition of The Archers." Mail On Sunday, 27.11.11

"...acutely observed comedy, set in rural Northamptonshire...with a mix of poignancy and very good jokes." Radio Choice, The Times 26.11.11

"Seldom has a radio comedy had a more brilliant cast. Penelope Wilton, Sheila Hancock, Kevin Eldon and Felicity Montagu all star in Katherine Jakeways' continuing tale of a small market town, Wadenbrook, where nothing much happens except the sort of thing which gets small towns all over the country excited. In Wadenbrook just now it's a Dickens Festival weekend. Stove pipe hats at the ready, ditto cravats, crinolines and shawls (some of which have also done duty in the cat basket)." Gillian Reynolds' Pick of the Day Telegraph, 26.11.11

"Sheila Hancock, Penelope Wilton and Mackenzie Crook star in the second run of Katherine Jakeways' series set in a market town. The thing about Wadenbrook is that anyone who has ever lived anywhere will recognise what goes on. Even when the town seems caught up in a Dickens Festival Weekend, beneath those mob caps, behind each cravat are people just as obstinate, dreamy, wilful and daft as the rest of us." Radio Choices, Sunday Telegraph, 27.11.11

North by Northamptonshire (Series One) BBC Radio 4

“Sheila Hancock, Mackenzie Crook, Penelope Wilton, and Kevin Eldon star in this funny and touching series about a small town preparing for a talent night.” The Independent 12/6/10

“The residents of a small town in Northamptonshire like everything to be nice - even the local homeless man is tastefully dressed in Boden. Sheila Hancock is the deadpan narrator for the opening episode of this spiffing new comedy series, starring Mackenzie Crook.”  *****  Daily Mail 12/6/10

“Great expectations abound for North by Northamptonshire, a new series by Katherine Jakeways about a small town preparing for a talent night, starring Sheila Hancock, Mackenzie Crook, Penelope Wilton, Felicity Montagu and Kevin Eldon. In this first (of four) episodes we meet the characters and discover what their problems are (everything from divorce and infertility to how to get your dogs to dance).” Daily Telegraph 12/6/10

“Katherine Jakeways’ engaging new series about a small town preparing for a talent night feels like a cross between Under Milk Wood and Jam and Jerusalem. The comedy may be gentle but the script is given an extra fillip by a starry cast including Sheila Hancock (the wry narrator) Mackenzie Crook (supermarket manager) and Kevin Eldon (a hen pecked husband). Jakeways herself is excellent as crazed self defence teacher Esther.” Stephanie Billen The Observer 13/6/10

“Sheila Hancock is the narrator in Katherine Jakeways’ new four part comedy drama serial. It’s set on Wadenbrook, an hour from Peterborough by bus, but where the local co-op is the centre of local life, partly because Rod the manager, comes on the tannoy to tell customers more than they might want to know about his private life. Imagine a version of Llareggub in Northants, with Ken Bruce on the radio and a talent contest in sight.” Gillian Reynolds Sunday Telegraph 13/6/10

“Katherine Jakeways, shortly to appear in Mark Gatiss's adaptation of HG Wells's The First Men In The Moon, pens this gentle four-part comedy set in the fictional town of Wadenbrook, nestling in the 'pancreas' of Middle England. The far from happy residents, including supermarket manager Rod (Mackenzie Crook), are preparing for a talent night. Sheila Hancock narrates.” Mail On Sunday 13/06/10

“A new four-part series with the potential to become a classic in the Little Britain mode. An all-star cast – Sheila Hancock, Mackenzie Crook, Penelope Wilton, Felicity Montagu and Kevin Eldon – star in Katherine Jakeways’ comedy about stultifying small-town obscurity, where middle-aged no-hopers live lives of quiet desperation and the young leave town at the earliest opportunity. The laughs are cruel, but the monsters of suburbia are curiously sympathetic, and the characters so well drawn and well played that this could run and run.” Time Out 10/6/10

“Katherine Jakeways is the new Victoria Wood. And that’s official. Her character comedy is so acutely observed and so sharp that it’s in danger of causing permanent injury. Sheila Hancock narrates this story of life in a small Northamptonshire town that’s home to the funniest of locals. Miss this at your peril.” Radio Times 8/6/10