Judy Matheson
We are delighted that actress Judy Matheson has become patron of Speech Academy International. Judy has extensive experience as an actor in all types of film, television and theatre performance.
Judy trained as an actress and a teacher at the New College of Speech and Drama. Following graduation she joined Bristol Old Vic Theatre Company, touring the United States with a season on Broadway, and Canada, followed by Europe and Israel, in three of Shakespeare's plays, the highlight of which was Sir Tyrone Guthrie's production of Measure for Measure.
Her debut film The Chairman (The Most Dangerous Man in the World), starred Gregory Peck. She was chosen to star in the Spanish film The Exquisite Cadaver (Las Crueles) with Capucine, directed by Vicente Aranda. She starred opposite Freddie Jones in Charles Wood's experimental drama The Emergence of Anthony Purdy esq. directed by Patrick Dromgoole which was chosen that year as ITV's entry in the Monte Carlo TV Festival. In the 1970s, she appeared in the Hammer Horror films Lust for a Vampire and Twins of Evil. Her other films include Pete Walker's The Flesh and Blood Show, The House That Vanished (AKA Scream and Die) directed by Jose Larraz, Crucible of Terror, Confessions of a Window Cleaner, and Percy's Progress.
Matheson's television work includes City '68, Spindoe, Coronation Street, Z Cars (twice, leading female), Crossroads, (Hugh Mortimer's secretary and Sandy's girlfriend), Harriet's Back in Town, The Adventurer, Dead of Night, The Professionals, The Sweeney, Shelley (BBC film of the poet, opposite Robert Powell and directed by Alan Bridges), Blake's 7, and Citizen Smith.
Matheson's theatre work includes starring opposite Richard O'Sullivan in a British tour of the comedy Boeing-Boeing with Yootha Joyce, Sally Thomsett and Doug Fisher, Ray Cooney's Chase Me Comrade, Stage Struck by Simon Gray, Hugh and Margaret Williams’ The Flip Side, Funny Peculiar by Mike Stott, and Alan Ayckbourn's Bedroom Farce. In 1979, she undertook a season playing leading parts at the Donovan Maule Theatre in Nairobi, Kenya.
When Matheson returned to London, she was invited to train as a continuity announcer for the new television franchise for ITV in the South Of England, Television South (TVS). She became a permanent continuity announcer for TVS in 1981. In 1990, she was part of the launch team for British Satellite Broadcasting, later to become BSkyB. She has also worked as a free-lance continuity announcer for Carlton Television and London Weekend Television.
In 2019, she took part in a new documentary about Peter Cushing, ‘Peter Cushing ‘In His Own Words’, talking about her work with him, released by the production company Rabbit & Snail Films. She also contributed to an American documentary about the actress Lynne Frederick: Lynne, the English Rose’ also released in 2019. As part of the 'special features' of the Studiocanal release of the Blu-ray of Hammer Films’ Lust For A Vampire (released in 2019) she has recorded an interview about her work and in particular her experience of working on that film.
She has returned to the big screen for a cameo in the feature film The Haunting of Margam Castle, starring Derren Nesbitt, Jane Merrow, and Caroline Munro, directed by Andrew Jones for North Bank Entertainment. Most recently Judy has undertaken the narration for "Mary Millington On Location", part of the special features for the new Mary Millington box set, released by Screenbound Entertainment in 2020.
During lockdown in May 2020, she performed a monologue (Spy) written by Martin Murphy, recorded for Bruised Sky Productions. In March 2021, also during lockdown, Matheson took part in a live online reading of a new play by David Barry, The Lives of Frankie Abbott, based on an episode in the life of the popular 1970s Please Sir character in old age. Produced by The Misty Moon Film Society, the cast included Felicity Dean, Suzanne Maddock, Graham Cole OBE and David Barry.
In July 2021, she took the part of Lady Lloyd George in an audio recording of a new play by AD Cooper, What Did You Do In The War, Mama?, for Towton Productions, directed by Laurel Parker of Mobley Street Productions. It also stars fellow Hammer Films actress Madeline Smith & is due to be released as a podcast on 26/07/2021. Judy returned to the big screen with an appearance in the feature length documentary Keeping The British End Up, directed by Simon Sheridan released in May 2022.
In October 2021 she played Sir Tony Robinson’s wife in a short film, Joe’s Journey, the script created from a cartoon by Tony Husband to raise awareness of dementia, directed by Jason Read.
Marie Critchley
Marie was recently seen in three new BBC Series Am I Being Unreasonable, Happy Valley 3 and Waterloo Road.
Trained at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama
Television credits include: Waterloo Road, Happy Valley, Am I Being Unreasonable, Time, Moving On, Cold Feet, Clink, Coronation Street, The A Word, Doctors, The Secret Agent, Wallander, Don’t Take My Baby, The Casual Vacancy, Ripper Street, In The Flesh, Common, Run, The Accused, Line of Duty, Sirens, Semi detached, South Riding, A Passionate Woman, Poppy Shakespeare, True Dare Kiss, The Royal, Lillies, The Street, Waterloo Road, See No Evil
Theatre credits include: Dreamers (Oldham Coliseum), Be My Baby (The Lowry), Pub (Monkeywood/Royal Exchange), Can’t Pay Won’t Pay, Brassed Off (Oldham Coliseum), Beautiful (York Theatre Royal/Octagon Bolton), A View From The Bridge (Birmingham Rep/The Strand), The Snow Queen (The Young Vic), Maine Road (Monkey Wood/The Lowry – National Tour), Was It Something I Said (Real Life Productions/JB Shorts), The Threepenny Opera, Effie’s Burning (Northrace Theatre), A Chorus Of Disapproval (Derby Playhouse), Adam Bede, Our Day Out, To Serve Them All My Days, The Fancy Man (Northampton Theatre Royal)