Artist Profile
Katherine Jakeways
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 recently 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, and the series will air on Radio 4 from June 16th 2010.
LIVE WORK
Katherine is a regular on the character comedy circuit. 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.
SOLO SHOWS
Wadenhoe Village Hall – Soho Theatre – 2007
Lost In Bank Station – Assembly Rooms – 2004
Katherine Jakeways – Pleasance - 2003
RADIO
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
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
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 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
Edinburgh Reviews The Odd Couple 2005
"Katherine Jakeways and Lizzie Roper titter and cackle terrifically as the fluffy Pigeon sisters. They almost pinch the show"
“Katherine Jakeways and Lizzie Roper are also superb as the English sisters who live upstairs.” Edinburgh Evening News
“Roper and Jakeways arrived with every line, nuance, and hair perfectly in place in a clear attempt to put the boys to shame - which they did.” The Scotsman
“The show was stolen lock, stock and barrel, however, by Katherine Jakeways and Lizzie Roper.” The Herald.
Edinburgh Reviews 2004 – Lost In Bank Station
"This year's revelation is Katherine Jakeways, a one-woman Little Britain" Independent on Sunday
"Katherine Jakeways is going to be a huge star. It must only be a matter of time before she's gracing our screens with her own TV show. A one-woman comedy show Katherine has created three fantastically-funny characters, each of which has the potential to become a major sit-com star" ***** Sunday Express
"One of the rising stars in female stand-up" Time Out
"Immaculately well-observed... Jakeways has a stiletto-sharp ear for soul-piercing lines" Evening Standard
"(one of ) the 50 best things to do in Edinburgh - more spot on comic portraiture" The Guardian
"After last year's acclaimed Fringe debut Jakeways returns to Edinburgh with her painfully observed, but big-hearted brand of character comedy.......a tragi-comic delight which brilliantly showcases her talents as a writer and performer" 3 Weeks
"A truly gifted comedian.....there are killer liners that are worthy of Alan Bennett. ****" Metro"
Jakeways invests an almost novelistic care in the dialogue and details, and the show goes deeper than caricature. When they're hilarious it appears accidental, and when they try to be funny they seem sad. They could almost be real" Sunday Herald
"An ambitious and dark affair......she's a sharp observer and a remarkable actress, and hers is a career to watch" Daily Telegraph
"The focus on the three well-conceived characters gives her the opportunity to really hone her skills at a number of genres - particularly excelling in black comedy - her audience gets a rollercoaster ride through all kinds of laughter" The Stage
"Katherine Jakeways is a hugely talented actress with a real feel for comedy monsters with soft centres. She is the Delia Smith of the bitter-sweet comedy confection" The Scotsman
"This brilliantly put-together production is a fine showcase of a fine comedy actress. Katherine Jakeways elegantly constructs
characters of depth and texture, much richer and more subtle than you have any right to expect" Chortle
Edinburgh Reviews 2003
"Katherine Jakeways is one of the most exciting young comic talents on the current scene. Her character-led 2003 Edinburgh show marked her out as a female Steve Coogan." BAFTA“
It’s easy to dismiss shows like these as showcases for the performer’s talent. Fine by me, if – as in the case of Jakeways – the talent is there in abundance..…She’s a killer performer….There’s a sharp-as tacks edge to these splendid comic vignettes.” **** The Guardian
“One to watch” Daily Telegraph
“Acutely observed…I nearly choked on my pint” Daily Telegraph
“Her acutely observed character comedy is the best on the Fringe” Independent on Sunday
Critics Choice The Times 14/8/03
Pick of the Day The Guardian 18/8/03
"This is the slickest of shows.....the forecast for Jakeways is undoubtedly sunny" Evening Standard
"It's the kind of feminine humour that made Smack the Pony work and Jakeways has got it down perfectly" Metro
"Katherine Jakeways' comedy debut is impressive to say the least. Her stage presence is almost hypnotic and her sketches - half acted, half projected on the screen - are written with great panache, attention to detail and a great sense of timing" The Stage
"Agents and producers on the look-out for a talented female comedy-actress should check her out" The Herald
"This brilliantly observed character would have been worthy of inclusion in Chris Morris's seminal The Day Today........someone we can expect to hear more of" Chortle
"Each character is so well defined…the show clearly marks Jakeways as a female Steve Coogan” Paramount Comedy
Ealing Live Reviews
“There’s a buzz about this place this now as Ealing’s Sound Stage Five stages the sparky work of young unknowns who could become tomorrow’s sitcom stalwarts. This season’s cast includes rising starlet Katherine Jakeways” The Guardian
“A new comedic dynasty is emerging here” Evening Standard
