Katie Redford (actress)

Katie Redford
Born
Katie Ann Redford

(1989-03-02) 2 March 1989 (age 35)
Occupations
  • Actress
  • writer
  • playwright
Years active2013–present
Known for
Websitekatieredford.com

Katie Ann Redford (born 2 March 1989)[1][2] is an English actress, writer and playwright. Since 2017, she has portrayed the role of Lily Pargetter in the BBC Radio 4 soap opera The Archers, as well as making appearances in television series including Doctors as Bethany Morris and Still Open All Hours as Beth. She also played characters in Young Hyacinth and Mount Pleasant.[3][4] Redford is also a writer, having written an audio drama Yellow Lips in 2021 and her debut play Tapped in 2022.[5]

Career

Redford was born in Stapleford, Nottinghamshire. She began her career working behind the scenes of the BBC soap opera Doctors as a runner.[6][7][8][9] At the beginning of her acting career, she appeared in several short films including Pitfall, Turn Your Bloody Phone Off: American Blood, Turn Off Your Bloody Phone - Film 4 Frightfest: The Dark Heart of Cinema and Norm.[9] In 2015, Redford was cast as Bethany Platt in the ITV soap opera Coronation Street. However she was sacked before filming after it emerged that Redford had lied about her age and said she was 19 when she was in fact 25, in order to play 14-year-old Bethany in the show, a character 11 years her junior.[10][11][12] The role was recast to Lucy Fallon instead.[13][14] Redford later said that she did not want to be in Coronation Street and received online abuse on social media.[15][16] Redford has also played Lisa in the film Urban Hymn and Cazzy in the fifth series of the comedy Mount Pleasant.[17] In 2016, she played Rose Walton in Young Hyacinth, the prequel to Keeping Up Appearances.[18]

In 2017, Redford returned to Doctors, this time in an acting role as Bethany Morris, appearing in four episodes.[19][20] Redford was then cast as Lily Pargetter in the BBC Radio 4 soap opera The Archers and was then cast in the role of Beth in Still Open All Hours and appeared until 2019.[21][22] In 2018, she co-wrote and appeared in the short film Ghosted alongside Alison Steadman.[9] In 2019, she played Lizzie Wiley in the Channel 5 mini drama Cold Call.[23] She also played characters called Rose in Mister Runner and Werewolf in 2020 and appeared in the radio drama Teatime.[24] In 2021, Redford played social worker Jane in the BBC comedy Alma's Not Normal and in 2022 appeared as Jill the Phone Woman in the episode of Not Going Out titled "Jury".[9]

Redford began writing in between acting jobs and is a member of the BBC Writersroom Comedy Room.[25] Redford wrote her first audio drama, Yellow Lips which debuted on BBC Radio 4 in 2021 and follows a daughter's memories of her mum's struggle with mental health.[26] In 2022, Redford wrote a play called Tapped which was described in The Guardian newspaper as "episodic-TV quality, with some amusing dialogue and interesting narrative turns" and was rated three out of five stars.[5][27]

Filmography

Year Title Role Notes
2013 Doctors Runner
2013 Pitfall Chloe Short film
2014 Turn Your Bloody Phone Off: American Blood Janet Short film
2014 Turn Off Your Bloody Phone - Film 4 Frightfest: The Dark Heart of Cinema Janet Short film
2014 Norm Waitress Short film
2015 Urban Hymn Lisa Film
2015 Mount Pleasant Cazzy Recurring role
2016 Young Hyacinth Rose Television film
2017–present The Archers Lily Pargetter Radio role
2017 Doctors Bethany Morris Guest role
2018 Ghosted Emma Short film
2019 Cold Call Lizzie Recurring role
2017–2019 Still Open All Hours Beth Main role
2020 Mister Winner Rose Episode: "The Interview"
2020 Werewolf Rose Short film
2021 Alma's Not Normal Jane Recurring role
2022 Not Going Out Jill the Phone Woman Episode: "Jury"
2022 Outlander Margit Episode: "I Am Not Alone"

References

  1. ^ "FreeBMD - Search". www.freebmd.org.uk.
  2. ^ "Coronation Street actress Katie Redford sacked after lying about her age". amp.smh.com.au.
  3. ^ "Kerry Howard is Young Hyacinth in these pictures from Keeping Up Appearances prequel". Digital Spy. 17 August 2016.
  4. ^ "Still Open All Hours gets a fifth series on BBC One". Digital Spy. 2 May 2018.
  5. ^ a b "Tapped review – inside the funny-sad world of the Go Get It! Group". TheGuardian.com. 13 April 2022.
  6. ^ "Katie Redford". Hatch.
  7. ^ "Midlands Interview with Katie Redford". www.midlandsmovies.com. 3 September 2019.
  8. ^ "Fun fact about The Mill's new work experience visitor - many years ago she was a Runner on the show! Welcome back Katie". Twitter. Doctors. 10 February 2017. Retrieved 13 May 2022.
  9. ^ a b c d "Katie Redford". Retrieved 12 October 2021.
  10. ^ "Corrie drops actress over age claims". BBC News. 19 January 2015.
  11. ^ "Meet The New (New) Face Of Bethany Platt". HuffPost UK. 29 January 2015.
  12. ^ "Coronation Street Bethany Platt actress dropped after claims emerge she lied about her age". Radio Times.
  13. ^ "Bethany's Back!". ITV.
  14. ^ "Coronation Street role recast". BBC News. 29 January 2015.
  15. ^ "'Distraught' actress (25) victim to online abuse since it emerged she said she was 19 to bag Coronation Street role".
  16. ^ "Sacked Katie Redford 'didn't want to be in Coronation Street'". Daily Mirror. 25 January 2015.
  17. ^ "Mount Pleasant Series 5". Tiger Aspect Productions. 1 March 2016.
  18. ^ "BBC One - Young Hyacinth, "Who would play your Richard?" and other questions". BBC.
  19. ^ "Here's your first look at sacked Corrie star in Doctors". Digital Spy. 29 January 2017.
  20. ^ "Axed Coronation Street star lands new BBC soap role". Daily Mirror. 16 January 2017.
  21. ^ "BBC Radio 4 - The Archers - Lily Pargetter". BBC.
  22. ^ "BBC One - Still Open All Hours, Series 4, Episode 2". BBC.
  23. ^ Akingbade, Tobi (19 November 2019). "Meet the cast of Cold Call, Channel 5's first ever original drama". www.standard.co.uk.
  24. ^ "BBC Radio 4 - Teatime". BBC.
  25. ^ "The view from inside BBC Writersroom's Comedy Room". BBC. 17 January 2017.
  26. ^ "BBC Radio 4 - Drama, Yellow Lips". BBC.
  27. ^ "The World Premiere of Katie Redford's TAPPED Comes to Theatre503".