Background
Bannerman was born at Abingdon, Oxfordshire, and trained at the London Drama Centre.
Bannerman was born at Abingdon, Oxfordshire, and trained at the London Drama Centre.
She played a number of major television roles early on in her acting career notably Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice (1967), Cecily in The Importance of Being Earnest and Lady Diana Newbury in Upstairs, Downstairs. At Stratford East she directed, Sleeping Beauty and The Proposal. She was the Staff Director at the Royal National Theatre on The Passion, Larkrise, Fruits of Enlightenment and Strife.
She also devised and directed a programme of erotic poetry called Making Love, and was the first woman to direct a play at the National Theatre, Lies in Plastic Smiles devised by the company and written by Gawn Grainger In the West End she directed September Tide at the Comedy Theatre, A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Open Air Theatre, Regent"s Park, Jack and the Beanstalk at the Shaw Theatre and three world premieres Beached, Sinners and Saints and Bet Noir at the New Vic and Warehouse Theatre.
