Honeysuckle Susan Weeks

Background

Honeysuckle Susan Weeks was born on August 1, 1979, in Cardiff, Wales, to Robin and Susan Weeks. She grew up in Chichester and Petworth in West Sussex. Her parents gave her the name Honeysuckle because the flowers were in bloom when she was born.

Weeks has a younger sister, Perdita Weeks, and a younger brother, Rollo Weeks; both also became actors. From the age of nine she attended the Sylvia Young Theatre School at weekends, an institution known for combining general education with specialist training in the performing arts. As a child she was also associated with the Chichester Festival Theatre, one of Britain's major regional theatres, whose work includes classical and contemporary drama.

Education

Weeks attended Great Ballard School and Roedean School before studying English at Pembroke College, Oxford, where she graduated with upper-second-class honours. Pembroke, founded in 1624, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford and has a long tradition of teaching humanities and other academic disciplines.

Alongside her academic education, Weeks trained at the Sylvia Young Theatre School from childhood. She also spent time studying art in Italy, adding an art-historical and visual dimension to an education that combined university study with early professional theatre and screen work.

Career

Weeks began acting professionally as a child. In 1993 she played Kitty Killen in the television adaptation of Anne Fine's Goggle-Eyes, followed by appearances in A Dark-Adapted Eye, The Ruth Rendell Mysteries, The Bill, The Rag Nymph, The Wild House, Close Relations, and Midsomer Murders. These early roles took her from children's television and literary adaptations into more mature television drama.

Her screen work continued with Lorna Doone in 2000 and My Brother Tom in 2001. She also appeared in the feature films Red Mercury and The Wicker Tree, and took guest roles in Agatha Christie's Poirot, Where the Heart Is, The Inspector Lynley Mysteries, Death in Paradise, Lewis, and The Five. Later television work included an appearance as Agatha Christie in Frankie Drake Mysteries and a role in the comedy series Maxxx.

In 2002 Weeks joined Foyle's War as Samantha Stewart, later Samantha Wainwright. The ITV series was a wartime detective drama set principally on the south coast of England, and her character developed from Foyle's secretary into a more independent figure across the programme's eight series, broadcast between 2002 and 2015. The role became the central long-running association of her screen career.

Weeks has also worked extensively on stage. In 2010 she played Sarah Prentice in Agatha Christie's A Daughter's A Daughter at Trafalgar Studios and Eliza Doolittle in Pygmalion at the Chichester Festival Theatre. In 2013 she appeared in the United Kingdom premiere of Melanie Marnich's These Shining Lives at Park Theatre in London, a drama about women workers affected by radium poisoning in 1920s Chicago. Her later stage credits include a rehearsed reading of King Lear, Gore Vidal's The Best Man, Calendar Girls—The Musical, Accolade, and a touring production of Little Women.

Achievements

• Weeks sustained a major television role as Samantha Stewart and Samantha Wainwright in all eight series of Foyle's War, broadcast from 2002 to 2015.

• She developed a substantial stage career alongside television work, including the United Kingdom premiere of These Shining Lives and leading roles in A Daughter's A Daughter and Pygmalion.

Works

• movie

  • The Wicker Tree

    (Feature film directed by Robin Hardy in which Weeks playe...)

    2011
  • Red Mercury

    (Feature film in which Weeks played Clarissa.)

    2005
  • My Brother Tom

    (Feature film in which Weeks played Sarah.)

    2001
  • Lorna Doone

    (Television film adaptation of R. D. Blackmore's novel in ...)

    2000

• play

  • These Shining Lives

    (Melanie Marnich play about women affected by radium poiso...)

    2013
  • Pygmalion

    (George Bernard Shaw stage play in which Weeks played Eliz...)

    2010
  • A Daughter's A Daughter

    (Agatha Christie stage play in which Weeks played Sarah Pr...)

    2010

• TV series

  • Foyle's War

    (ITV wartime detective series in which Weeks played Samant...)

    2002
  • The Rag Nymph

    (Television adaptation of Catherine Cookson's novel in whi...)

    1997
  • Goggle-Eyes

    (Television adaptation of Anne Fine's novel in which Weeks...)

    1993

Views

Weeks has spoken about acting as a discipline that develops through education, lived experience, and the challenge of taking on unfamiliar roles. Her career choices and interviews emphasize artistic variety and the value of testing her limits rather than remaining confined to the public image created by one long-running role.

Personality

In interviews, Weeks has described herself as more chaotic and light-hearted than the prim, serious character she played in Foyle's War. She has also spoken about seeking varied roles because continuing to play a familiar character could make an actor too comfortable and lead to typecasting.

Interests

• Gardening; art and art history.

Connections

Weeks is the daughter of Robin Weeks and Susan Weeks. Her siblings include the actresses Perdita Weeks and Rollo Weeks, who also worked as an actor.

She married Lorne Stormonth-Darling, a hypnotherapist and dealer in Tibetan antiques, in a Buddhist ceremony in the Himalayas before a formal wedding in West Sussex in 2007. They have a son, Wade Stormonth-Darling.

Father:

Robin Weeks

Mother:

Susan Weeks

Susan Weeks was born Susan Wade.

Sister:

Perdita Weeks

Perdita Weeks is an actress.

Brother:

Rollo Weeks

Rollo Weeks is an actor.

husband:

Lorne Stormonth-Darling

He is a hypnotherapist and dealer in Tibetan antiques.

Son:

Wade Stormonth-Darling

References

• Official London Theatre: Wakefield and Weeks Have Shining Lives Documents Weeks's stage appearances in A Daughter's A Daughter, Pygmalion, Twelfth Night, Love's Labour's Lost, and These Shining Lives.
  2013
• ITV News Meridian interview with Honeysuckle Weeks Provides biographical and professional context concerning Weeks's association with Foyle's War and her life in West Sussex.
  2016
• Honeysuckle Weeks: A New Battle for a Shining Star Interview and career profile discussing Weeks's education at Oxford, Foyle's War, stage work, and approach to selecting roles.
  2013
• Honeysuckle Weeks biography Biographical reference documenting Weeks's birth, acting career, education, family relationships, and selected personal details.