Josette Patricia Simon,OBE (born 1959 or 1960)^[1] is a British actor who played the part ofDayna Mellanby in the third and fourth series of thetelevision sci-fi seriesBlake's 7 from 1980 to 1981. She trained at theCentral School of Speech and Drama in London and performed as a 14-year-old in the choir for the world premiere of the finalisedJoseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. She has continued a career in stage productions, appearing in 50Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) productions, from the single press night performance as a featured character inSalvation Now at theWarehouse theatre in 1982, through to playingCleopatra in a six-month run ofAntony and Cleopatra at theRoyal Shakespeare Theatre in 2017. The first black woman in an RSC play when she appeared inSalvation Now, Simon has been at the forefront ofcolour-blind casting, playing roles traditionally taken by white actors, including Maggie, a character who is thought to be based onMarilyn Monroe, inArthur Miller'sAfter the Fall at theRoyal National Theatre in 1990.

Simon's first leading role at the RSC, the first principal part filled by a black woman for the company, was as Rosaline, inLove's Labour's Lost, in 1984. In 1987, she appeared for the RSC again, in the lead role of Isabelle inMeasure for Measure. Later leading roles for the RSC saw her as Titania/Hippolyta inA Midsummer Night's Dream (1999–2000) and Cleopatra in Antony and Cleopatra (2017–2018). She has played numerous other roles across stage, television, film, and radio. She starred alongside Brenda Fricker in the two-part television seriesSeekers (1993), written byLynda La Plante. Simon has portrayed senior police officers inSilent Witness (1998),Minder (2009), andBroadchurch (2017); and portrayed a defence lawyer inAnatomy of a Scandal (2022).

Simon won theEvening Standard's Best Actress award, aCritics' Circle Theatre Award, andPlays and Players Critic Awards forAfter the Fall and two film festival awards for her part inMilk and Honey (1988). She was made an Officer of theOrder of the British Empire in 2000, for services to drama.

Josette Patricia Simon was born in 1959 or 1960 inLeicester.^[1][2][3] Her mother, fromAnguilla, and her father, fromAntigua, had both moved to the United Kingdom in the 1950s and worked atThorn EMI.^[4][5][6] Simon attended Mellor Street primary school, followed by Alderman Newton's Girls' School.^[7] She became interested in acting after getting a place in the choir, at age 14, for the world premiere of the finalised version ofJoseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, presentedin Leicester in 1974.^[1][8] Simon later appeared in pantomimes before finishing secondary school,^[7][1][5] and played Martha in a 1976 production ofThe Miracle Worker directed byMichael Bogdanov at theLeicester Haymarket Theatre.^[4]Alan Rickman, who was in the production ofJoseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, encouraged Simon to apply for theCentral School of Speech and Drama in London and she was accepted.^[9][10]

Simon won the part ofDayna Mellanby in theBBC 1 televisionsci-fi seriesBlake's 7 after being talent-spotted while still at the Central School of Speech and Drama.^[11][12] She played Mellanby in the third and fourth series, originally broadcast between January 1980 and December 1981.^[13][14] The character was an expert combatant and highly knowledgeable about weapons.^[15] Andrew Muir, author of a book about the series, felt that Simon provided "energy, vitality, innocence, danger, and a real physical presence" to the character.^[16] Another author who wrote about the show, Tom Powers, felt that Mellanby and the other women heroes were often eclipsed by the male leads,^[17] and that over the series, Mellanby, who did not achieve her ambition to avenge her father's death by killing the villainous characterServalan, "lost her agency as a heroic figure oflex talionis".^[17]

Simon was invited to return to the role in audio productions byBig Finish but declined,^[18] but has played other roles for the company.^[19]

She also featured in two other programmes in 1980: the sitcomThe Cuckoo Waltz and theteen dramaThe Squad.^[20][21][22]

Simon has performed frequently with theRoyal Shakespeare Company (RSC) andRoyal National Theatre.^[11] After taking part in a reading ofSalvation Now bySnoo Wilson in 1982,^[23][24] she was cast as one of the three "weird sisters" inMacbeth alongside Kathy Behean andLesley Sharp later that year.^[25][5] She was the first black woman to appear in a Shakespeare play at the RSC.^[26] In the same RSC season, she had roles inMuch Ado About Nothing, as a spirit inThe Tempest and as Iras inAntony and Cleopatra.^[27] In 1997, Simon told academic Alison Oddey that working withMichael Gambon and, particularly,Helen Mirren onAntony and Cleopatra provided an early influence on her career.^[4] She was with the RSC for two consecutive two-year season cycles. In the second cycle her roles included Nerissa inThe Merchant Of Venice and starring as Dorcas Ableman inGolden Girls, which became a breakthrough role for her.^[28][29] TheFinancial Times reviewerMichael Coveney wrote of the latter role that "The immense power and beauty of this actress is at last given proper opportunity by the RSC."^[30]Ros Asquith ofThe Observer felt that Simon's performance was among the most thrilling in London,^[31] andThe Daily Telegraph critic Eric Shorter praised the cast's efforts but felt that the play suffered from overly slow pacing.^[32] The central role of a black runner drew on Simon's own experience of being an athlete; the play's author,Louise Page, later related that the play had been rewritten from an ensemble piece, as "the sheer dynamism Josette brought to the role meant that it was her journey through the play with which the audience identified".^[29]

Simon has been at the forefront ofcolour-blind casting, playing roles traditionally taken by white actors.^[33][34][35] From the mid-1980s to the late 1990s, a time when it was unusual for black women to feature as leads in Shakespeare plays, Simon played several major roles for the RSC. Her first leading role, and the first for a black woman at the RSC, was as Rosaline, inLove's Labour's Lost, directed byBarry Kyle, in 1984.^[36] Jami Rogers, in her bookBritish Black and Asian Shakespeareans (2022) commented that in Kyle's production, where the women were dressed inBelle Époque-style silk dresses, Rosaline's clothing "immediately marked her as a woman of high status ... For the first time on a major British stage, an African-Caribbean woman portrayed an intelligent, witty and strong leading Shakespearean character."^[37] Rogers described the reviews of the production as "glowing".^[38] She noted that some reviewers and academics "treated Josette Simon's casting ... as a novelty", criticising the description of integrated casting as an "experiment" as "deeply problematic as it infers the practice is an aberration rather than what it was [by 1990], a common practice".^[39]

Simon told Oddey that despite being conscious of discussions about whether audiences would accept a black woman as Rosaline, "I also felt that you should be allowed to fail, because if you don't take risks you can't reach higher planes" and that she had focused on her performance rather than debates around her casting, saying that "If I had thought about those things beforehand, I would not have set foot on the stage".^[40] She told Veronica Groocock, author ofWomen Mean Business (1988), that sexism had been as much of an issue as racism in her career, although the problem reduced as she gained larger roles.^[41] Nine years later, she expressed her dissatisfaction with the lack of good roles for women, which she ascribed to the industry being male-dominated and complained that, "I think that we've seen more and more trivialising of actresses, requiring them to look gorgeous and take their top off at some point."^[42]

In 1987, Simon appeared for the RSC again, in the lead role of Isabelle inMeasure for Measure, directed byNicholas Hynter;^[43][44] her performance received some critical acclaim,^[45] whist other commentators felt it was "underpowered and lacking in emotional intensity".^[46]Irving Wardle wrote inThe Times that the plot and casting demanded that Simon's "Isabella should be the only nobly uncorrupted figure on stage ... and Miss Simon, a burnished icon of impassioned purity, fulfills it to the letter ... The penalty is that she emerges as less humanly interesting than the surrounding hypocrites and sensualists."^[47]The Sunday Telegraph criticFrancis King considered her performance to be "appealing and tough".^[48] Coveney of theFinancial Times felt that Simon "fails ... with the full range of the role. Like so many of this season's leading ladies, she is technically underpowered."^[49] The play transferred to theTheatre Royal, Newcastle and then to theBarbican in 1988.^[50]Financial Times critic Martin Hoyle wrote of the Barbican production that Simon "has transformed her voice, both timbre and enunciation .... Incisive, vocally varied, though slightly lacking the full weight for the early emotional climaxes, she gives the best performance I have seen from her, dignified and touching."^[51] InThe Times in 1991,Benedict Nightingale opined that by casting Simon as Isabella and Rosaline, andHugh Quarshie in other plays, the RSC had been "launching two performers of huge potential".^[52]

In 2014, the RSC's Head of Casting, Hannah Miller, explained that the RSC's policy was to select the best actor for the role regardless of factors including gender, race, class, and disability status. The drama and theatre scholar Lynette Goddard argued that despite the RSC's inclusive policy, black women actors still had limited opportunities to progress, "which makes Josette Simon's case all the more compelling".^[53] Goddard commented that "the more well known Simon became, the less compelled reviewers felt to mention race".^[54] Simon told David Jays ofThe Guardian in 2017 that "I hate the term 'black actor' ... I'm black, which I'm proud of, but it doesn't mean anything. You're an actor, full stop."^[5] Colour-blind casting also applied when Simon played Maggie inArthur Miller'sAfter the Fall at the National Theatre in 1990. The character was thought to have been based onMarilyn Monroe, who was married to Miller.^[35] It was a performance that won Simon theEvening Standard'sBest Actress award,^[55]Critics' Circle Theatre Award andPlays and Players Critic Awards.^[56][57] Miller attended rehearsals for two weeks, and Simon told Oddey that, like playing Rosaline, meeting Miller was one of the key moments in her career, and the experience helped her to focus on her work and disregard distractions.^[4] Simon portrayed Vittoria in the Royal National Theatre'sThe White Devil in 1991.^[58]

Simon returned to the RSC in 1999 as Queen Elizabeth inDon Carlos. Nightingale described her performance as "vivid and vital".^[59] Next, she was Titania/Hippolyta inA Midsummer Night's Dream. TheFinancial Times reviewer wrote that Simon spoke "Titania's lines with an almost jazz musicality, dances, moves, and stands with compelling power. Her stance alone is more regal than that of several of today's ballerinas."^[60] Paul Taylor ofThe Independent called the production'sNicolas Jones and Simon "the sexiest, most commanding Oberon and Titania of recent years".^[61]

In 2017, Simon took the role of Cleopatra inAntony and Cleopatra for the RSC.Michael Billington wrote forThe Guardian that "Simon seems born to play Cleopatra and she gives us a hypnotically mercurial figure whose eroticism is expressed through a permanent restlessness", although he felt that Simon employed too many voices in the role.^[62] Making a similar criticism about the range of accents used,Ian Shuttleworth of theFinancial Times felt that Simon failed to play to her strengths as an actor and concluded that "On the occasion of Simon's first RSC appearance this century, she is heartbreaking in all the wrong ways."^[63]Ann Treneman ofThe Times felt that Simon, with a performance that was "quite bonkers" at times, provided the highlight of the show, despite a "lamentable lack of chemistry" between her and Anthony Byrne as Antony.^[64] The literature scholar Jyotsna Singh commented that critics' responses, although positive, contained "racialized and gendered inflections",^[65] and tended to highlight Simon's "rendering of a histrionic and passionate woman, falling back on Western sexual stereotypes about 'exotic' women of colour" while not considering the multi-faceted nature of the character that Simon herself spoke about.^[65]

InThe Rise of the English Actress (1993), author Sandra Richards wrote that Simon's "special brand of integrity has gained her a number of 'strong women' roles that are setting a precedent for British actresses from ethnic minorities and reinforcing the contemporary actress's need for roles that not only avoid stereotype but also challenge the limits of her own personality."^[29]

Simon took the title role in the 1985BBC Radio 3 production ofMirandolina.^[66] She was the lead inDavid Zane Mairowitz's playDictator Gal, broadcast on the same station in 1992. Her character was married to an exiled dictator who was dying in hospital. Simon's character sang a range of songs, includingRichard Wagner andMotown compositions in an attempt to revive him.^[67][68] Her performance earned her aPrix Futura Award nomination.^[69]

Simon's film appearances include the part ofDr. Ramphele inCry Freedom (1987).^[70][11] She was nominated as Best Actress at theGenie Awards forMilk and Honey (1988),^[71] in which she played Joanna, who left Jamaica with her child to work as a nanny in Toronto. Rick Groen ofThe Globe and Mail wrote that Simon's "riveting performance ... carries the picture" for the first part, but felt that from thesecond act onward, the film descended into histrionics.^[72] In theSan Francisco Chronicle,Judy Stone praised Simon's performance as Joanna, commenting that "she displays a quality of grace all too rare in today's films".^[70]

The 1992 television playBitter Harvest had Simon in the lead role, as a woman who has gone missing after travelling to theDominican Republic as an aid worker and whose parents go there in search of her. The English Literature scholar Claire Tylee considered that Simon's character was a "credible protagonist", but the film was adversely affected by a mismatch between its thriller and family plotlines. After Simon had already accepted the leading role based on an outline the producerCharles Pattinson pitched, the scriptwriterWinsome Pinnock altered the storyline to include tensions in the mixed-race family. According to Tylee, neither Simon's character or the character of her father were enough like typical thriller heroes to "successfully play on thriller conventions, and the plots end by humiliating both of them, fetishising the black female body along the way."^[73]

In 1993, Simon starred alongsideBrenda Fricker in the two-part television seriesSeekers, written byLynda La Plante. Their characters discovered that they were both married to the same man, who has disappeared. They later worked as partners in the detective agency that he had founded.^[74] Lynda Gilbey ofSunday Life wrote that the show was "a first class detective drama ... beautifully plotted, wonderfully performed".^[75] TheNewcastle Journal reviewer Norman Davison commented that the two lead actors "invested the roles with the sort of power that all La Plante women seem to have and the men were all the wimps".^[76]

Nightingale ofThe Times wrote in a negative review ofJean Genet's playThe Maids in 1997 that Simon provided the "one strong performance".^[77] She had a recurring role as a defence lawyer inAnatomy of a Scandal in 2022.^[78] Her supporting performance inCrossfire (2022) was highlighted as one of the few positives in a negative review of the series by Anita Singh ofThe Daily Telegraph.^[79] Simon has played senior police officers inSilent Witness (1998),^[80]Minder (2009),^[81] andBroadchurch (2017),^[80] and has been cast as Chief Commissioner Camberwell inAnansi Boys, which was in production as of May 2022.^[82] In 2019 she appeared as Grams in the filmDetective Pikachu.^[80]

Simon married the tenorMark Padmore; the couple had one daughter together (b. c. 2000–2001) before they divorced; in a 2020 interview, Simon still refers to Padmore as a "life-long friend".[9] With her dog Milo, Simon visits patients through the charity Pets As Therapy.^[9][83] She supports theKaos Signing Choir for Deaf and Hearing Children,^[84][85] and several other groups that aid deaf people.^[9][86] She plays the saxophone recreationally,^[87] and practicesAshtanga yoga.^[7]

In 1995, Simon was awarded anhonorary Master of Arts degree by theUniversity of Leicester.^[11][88] In the2000 Birthday Honours she was appointed anOfficer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE), for services to drama.^[2] She received a Pioneers and Achievers award in 1998, in recognition of being one of the people from Leicester who had "paved the way for the next generations of African Caribbean people to achieve and excel in a diverse range of professions and spheres of influence".^[69][89]

• Goddard, Lynette (2007). "11. Side doors and service elevators: racial constraints for actressses of colour". In Gale, Maggie B.; Stokes, John (eds.).The Cambridge Companion to the Actress. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 215–234.doi:10.1017/CCOL9780521846066.ISBN 978-0-521-60854-1.
• Goddard, Lynette (2017). "Will we ever have a black Desdemona? Casting Josette Simon at the Royal Shakespeare Company". In Jarrett-Macauley, Delia (ed.).Shakespeare, Race and Performance. Abingdon: Routledge. pp. 80–95.ISBN 978-1-138-91382-0.
• Groocock, Veronica (1988).Women Mean Business. London: Ebury.ISBN 978-0-85223-672-7.
• McCormack, Una (2006). "9. Resist the host – Blake's 7: a very British future". In Cook, John R.; Wright, Peter (eds.).British Science Fiction Television : a Hitchhiker's Guide. New York: I.B. Tauris. pp. 174–191.ISBN 978-1-84511-047-5.
• Muir, John Kenneth (1999).A History and Critical Analysis of Blake's 7, the 1978–1981 British Television Space Adventure. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company.ISBN 978-0-7864-0600-5.
• O'Connor, John; Goodland, Katharine (2007).A Directory of Shakespeare in Performance 1970–2005. Vol. I: Great Britain. London: Palgrave Macmillan.ISBN 978-1-4039-1734-8.
• Oddey, Alison (1999).Performing Women: Stand-ups, Strumpets and Itinerants. Basingstoke: Macmillan.ISBN 978-0-333-71394-5.
• Powers, Tom (2016).Gender and the Quest in British Science Fiction Television: An Analysis of Doctor Who, Blake's 7, Red Dwarf and Torchwood. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company.ISBN 978-1-4766-6552-8.
• Richards, Sandra (1993). "The Recent Actress".The Rise of the English Actress. London: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 230–260.doi:10.1007/978-1-349-09930-6_11.ISBN 978-1-349-09930-6.
• Riggs, Thomas, ed. (2007).Contemporary Theatres, Film and Television. Vol. 75. Farmington Mills: Thomson Gale.ISBN 978-0-7876-9048-9.
• Rogers, Jami (2022).British Black and Asian Shakespeareans: Integrating Shakespeare, 1966–2018 (ebook ed.). London: Bloomsbury.ISBN 978-1-350-11293-3.
• Rokison-Woodall, Abigail (2017). "Hytner and The RSC – 1987–1991".Shakespeare in the Theatre: Nicholas Hytner. London: Bloomsbury. pp. 37–82.doi:10.5040/9781472581648.ch-002.ISBN 978-1-4725-8164-8.
• Scott, Michael (2015).Shakespeare's Tragedies: All That Matters (ebook ed.). London: John Murray Press.ISBN 978-1-4441-8994-0.Archived from the original on 8 April 2023. Retrieved29 January 2023.
• Singh, Jyotsna (2019).Shakespeare and Postcolonial Theory. London: Bloomsbury.ISBN 978-1-4081-8605-3.
• Tylee, Claire (2000). "The black explorer: female identity in black feminist drama on British television in 1992". In Carson, Bruce; Llewellyn-Jones, Margaret (eds.).Frames and Fictions on Television : the Politics of Identity within Drama. Exeter: Intellect. pp. 100–112.ISBN 978-1-84150-009-6.

• Josette Simon atIMDb 
• RSC Performance Database: Josette Simon

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